Shaquawn Alleyne, called “Iswe”, was on Thursday sentenced to 25 years’ imprisonment without parole by Justice Sandil Kissoon for the April 2021 murder of his girlfriend, 21-year-old Shonette Dover.
During the sentencing hearing, Alleyne broke down in tears, apologised to Dover’s family, and pleaded for forgiveness.
In handing down the sentence, Justice Kissoon described the killing as a grave and heinous crime, underscoring the troubling prevalence of intimate partner violence in society.
The court considered several aggravating factors, including Alleyne’s failure to seek medical assistance for Dover after she was shot, his decision to bury her in a shallow grave, his involvement of the victim’s younger sister in concealing the crime, his efforts to mislead family members and the wider community, and his flight to Suriname in an attempt to evade justice.
As part of the sentence, Alleyne must serve the full 25-year term before becoming eligible for parole.
On June 2, Alleyne pleaded guilty to the offence when his trial commenced in the Demerara High Court.
According to reports, Dover was fatally shot in the head on April 3, 2021, and buried in a shallow grave in the backyard of the couple’s home at Canvas City, Linden.
Following the killing, Alleyne fled to Suriname, where he remained until his arrest and extradition to Guyana in 2024 to face the murder charge.
Investigators were led to Dover’s body by her younger sister, who had witnessed the shooting and later alerted police. Acting on information provided by the teenager, officers discovered Dover’s decomposed remains in a shallow grave behind Alleyne’s Canvas City residence on April 30, 2021.
During the investigation, Alleyne’s father and Dover’s 15-year-old sister were arrested. Police said the teenager confessed to being present when Dover was killed and subsequently led investigators to the burial site. On May 4, 2021, she was charged with being an accessory after the fact of murder.
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