…victim lost an arm, an eye, and finger
Thirty-one-year-old Richard Mohammed of Lower Pomeroon, Region Two (Pomeroon Supenaam) has been jailed for 14 years for brutally chopping a pregnant woman, resulting in her losing an eye, an arm, and a finger.
Initially indicted for the offence of attempted murder, Mohammed opted to plead guilty to the lesser count of felonious wounding. He admitted that on March 25, 2021, in the county of Essequibo, he unlawfully and maliciously wounded a 23-year-old woman.
The prosecution’s case is that, on the day in question, Mohammed and the woman were engaged in a heated argument, during which he armed himself with a cutlass and dealt the woman, who was in her third trimester of pregnancy, several chops to her head and other parts of her body. The woman managed to escape by running into the backdam, where she was rescued by persons who subsequently rushed her to the hospital.
Due to the severity of her injuries, the victim lost her right arm, a finger on her left hand, and her right eye.
After attacking the woman, Mohammed doused her house with gasoline and set it on fire, before surrendering at the Police station.
During Thursday’s sentencing hearing, the woman shared that the incident has left her mentally and physically scarred, and unable to provide for herself and her young children. In her victim impact statement, she wrote, “Me and my children don’t have anywhere to live, and we have to keep asking people to keep us. This is really hard on me, my children have to see their mom permanently disfigured. My life would never be the same again, and I have to live with it…”
In a plea in mitigation, Mohammed’s attorney, George Thomas, implored the court to temper justice with mercy, adding that his client is still haunted by the dreadful incident.
Thomas asked the court to impose the minimum sentence, since his client, who is a first-time offender, does not have a history of behaving violently. Thomas said that Mohammed, who is willing to compensate the woman, is a good candidate for rehabilitation.
In his address to the court, Mohammed expressed that he was “deeply sorry”. He said, “I’m deeply sorry for everything that happened. Whatever is asked of me I will do. I couldn’t control myself in all this. I am deeply sorry for everything, and please forgive me for everything that happened.”
In her sentencing remarks, Justice Barlow highlighted that the life-changing injuries have now left the young woman dependent on others for the rest of her life.
According to the Judge, the incident has affected the woman psychologically, and she noted that the young woman would forever look at her damaged hand, missing finger, and missing eye and not be able to do anything about it.
The Judge said that not only did the injuries pose a threat to the woman’s life, but also to the life of her unborn child. In this regard, she told Mohammed that his actions displayed his wanton disregard for life and limb, and a lack of concern for those who lived in the house he set on fire.
Justice Barlow noted that Mohammed’s guilty plea was a “tactical plea”, given the overwhelming evidence against him. As such, she did not give him the full one-third deduction, which by law is the maximum level of reduction in sentence for a guilty plea. Moreover, she told him that his expression of remorse “rings hollow”, since he initially pleaded not guilty, thereby choosing to go through a trial.
In arriving at an appropriate sentence for him, the Judge commenced at a base of 19 years, from which she deducted five years for his early guilty plea. In the end, the convict was sentenced to 14 years’ imprisonment, less the time he had spent in pretrial detention, which amounts to 42 days.
The Judge also ordered that, during his time in custody, he undergoes counselling tailored for persons convicted of violent crimes.
Senior State Counsel Tiffini Lyken appeared for the prosecution, while Attorney-at-Law George Thomas appeared on behalf of Mohammed.
