A second remand prisoner, who pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the 2003 shooting death of Corentyne teacher Saisnarine Ramnauth, as well as to armed robbery, was yesterday sentenced to 19 years in prison by Berbice Assizes judge Diana Insanally.
Alfred Lewis, 26, pleaded guilty to three counts of robbery under arms committed at the Sain Supermarket, Williamsburg, Corentyne, on the evening of June 7, 2003, the same night Ramnauth was killed.
Lewis, Brentnol Bascom and Rondel Harris had been charged with murder and armed robbery. Harris had pleaded guilty to manslaughter earlier this year.
State Prosecutor Ganesh Hira told the court that on the day in question, between 6.30 pm and 7 pm, two men — Bascom and Harris — entered Sain Supermarket armed with a gun and one of them robbed its co-owner Bibi Zafena Ally, who was the cashier, of $400,000 and a pair of gold bangles.
Just minutes before, outside the supermarket they had robbed customer Indrawattie Moonilall and her daughter of $55,000 in cash and jewellery.
Lewis had remained outside the supermarket keeping a look out, and in so doing, ordered customers and co-owner of the business Akbar Sain, at gunpoint to lie on the ground.
Hira said the two gunmen who had entered the shop, then exited with a bag and thereafter fired a gun.
The three men then assaulted and forced Ramnauth, a student of the University of Guyana, into his vehicle and ordered him to drive. The car proceeded in an easterly direction, after which a gunshot was heard.
Hira said Sain had followed the bandits and soon came upon the car which had crashed. Ramnauth, who was bleeding, was in the car.
Sometime later, Ally and Sain had identified Lewis and Harris at an identification parade.
The prosecutor said that although Lewis was not in the supermarket, he played an equal part in the events.
Lewis, in a caution statement, had said that Bascom was the mastermind of the robbery. Lewis had said that he and Harris were liming in Rose Hall, when Bascom, who they knew drove up and invited them into his car.
Lewis said he was afraid to refuse Bascom as the man had a gun. He said that they drove around for some 15 minutes before stopping at the supermarket; he stayed outside while the others went in.
He said that shortly after, his accomplices came back and they all got into the car after forcing Ramnauth into the driver’s seat. He told the court that after they had driven a short distance, Bascom shot Ramnauth in the back of the head.
Hira told the court the Lewis’s caution statement was almost word-for-word that of Harris, who was sentenced in January to nine years’ imprisonment having also pleaded guilty to the lesser count of manslaughter.
According to the state counsel, the suspects had initially denied their involvement in the incident, but after they were placed in the same cell, they agreed to give caution statements and both were almost identical
Hira opined that the men could have fabricated the facts in the statements.
However, he said, witnesses had corroborated that Lewis was the bandit who had remained outside the supermarket.
In a mitigation plea, defence counsel Charrandas Persaud said his client, then 20 years old, had spent six years on remand awaiting trial. The lawyer agreed that no amount of money or remorse could compensate for the loss of a life. But he said Lewis regretted his actions and had thrown himself at the mercy of the court.
Handing down the sentence, Justice Insanally told the convict that the offence was a serious one.
“If you had gone to trial and had been found guilty, the penalty would have been death,” she said. “A person has lost his life. Society has been traumatized, not only the persons who were the victims but society as a whole. Use your time in prison to decide what you want with your life; It is either you join with the gangs or change your lifestyle.”
Justice Insanally then handed down a sentence of ten years for the manslaughter, and three years for each of the three counts of robbery under arms charges. The sentences will run concurrently; as a result the convict will only serve ten years.
Lewis stared blankly at the judge as she handed down the sentence. His sisters, one of whom is blind, sat quietly in the courtroom as he was sentenced and subsequently taken away.
