Justice Navindra Singh, this morning, sentenced Foster Gravesande to 56 years in prison after he was found guilty of murdering his neighbour back in 2017.
The 50-year-old Mahaica, East Coast Demerara (ECD) man was found guilty by a 12-member jury back in December and was scheduled for sentencing after the court received a probation report.
Justice Singh said that Gravesande would be eligible for parole after serving 28 years of his sentence.
Following his arraignment before Justice Singh, Gravesande pleaded not guilty to the charge which stated that on April 9, 2017, he murdered 49-year-old Courtney Porter.
When the trial commenced in December at the Demerara High Court, State Prosecutor Teriq Mohammed called four witnesses: Government Pathologist Dr Nehaul Singh and three Police ranks.
Dr Singh gave Porter’s cause of death as brain haemorrhage due to blunt force trauma.
It was reported that Porter, a father of three, was reportedly beaten in the head with a piece of wood by Gravesande who had accused him of pulling his wife’s garments. Following the incident, Porter was hospitalised and his attacker was charged with attempt to commit murder and released on bail.
However, Porter succumbed two weeks after the beating and as such, Gravesande subsequently fled the area and was captured in another policing division.
The charge against him was upgraded to murder. After a Preliminary Inquiry (PI), in the Magistrate’s Court, he was committed to stand trial for the capital offence.
