Cuban national Yoel Rodrigues Barientos, also known as “Joel Rodrigues”, was today remanded to prison for the murders of his 34-year-old partner Tara Krishnaran and her 11-year-old daughter Larissa Singh.
The man was not required to plead to the indictable charge when he appeared before the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court today. He is expected to return to court on January 18.
The Cuban national was apprehended on Monday in Amelia’s Ward, Linden after the Police had issued a warrant for his arrest for the murders.
During interrogation, Barientos told detectives that on Christmas Night he got angry after the now dead woman informed him that she was going to visit a relative. This, he noted, led to an argument, and it was then that he picked up a hammer and dealt the woman several blows to her head.
She collapsed on the bed and died instantly.
He further told detectives that the crime was witnessed by the dead woman’s daughter, and in order to prevent her from testifying against him, he attacked and stabbed the 11-year-old to the neck and body with a knife. She died moments after her mother. He, however, denied that he sexually molested the child. The postmortem examination had found that the young girl was “sexually active”.
Further, it showed that Krishnaran died of blunt force trauma to the head, and her daughter of an incise wound to the neck and blunt force trauma.
