Linden man pleads guilty to murdering, burying girlfriend in backyard

• sentencing set for June 19

Shaquawn Alleyne also known as “Iwse,” who back in 2024 confessed to murdering and burying his girlfriend’s body in a shallow grave at Canvas City, Linden, on Tuesday entered a guilty plea when he appeared at the High Court.

Alleyne was charged and remanded to prison for the murder of 20-year-old Shonnette Dover, which took place between April 3 and April 29, 2021. After committing the act, the suspect went into hiding, but after three years, he was apprehended in neighboring Suriname and brought back to Guyana to face charges.

However, following his plea before Justice Sandil Kissoon on Tuesday, the judge ordered a probation report, a psychiatric assessment, and a report from the Guyana Prison Service on Alleyne’s conduct while on remand. These reports are expected to be submitted by June 16, one day before his sentencing.

Alleyne’s attorneys, Fung-a-Fat and Dominique Bess, were also instructed to file submissions identifying mitigating factors the court should consider when imposing the sentence.

It was reported that after being shot dead on April 3, 2021, Dover was buried in Alleyne’s backyard, but a younger sister of the victim, who had witnessed the shooting, alerted police to what had transpired. With guidance from that sister, the victim’s decomposed body was found in a shallow grave behind Alleyne’s Canvas City, Linden home on April 30, 2021.

Alleyne’s father and Dover’s 15-year-old sister had been arrested during the investigation. Police had indicated that the teen had led them to the shallow grave where the missing woman’s remains were buried after confessing to being at the scene of the crime when the woman died on April 3, 2021. On May 4, 2021, Dover’s teen sister was charged with accessory after the fact of murder.