– faces life in prison
The Guyanese man, who had slashed his alleged rape victim to death to stop her from testifying, was convicted of first degree murder on Thursday and faces life in prison without parole, according to the website yournabe.com.
Hemant Megnath, 32, of Brooklyn, will be sentenced next month and according to District Attorney Richard Brown he may spend the rest of his life in prison.
Megnath slashed the throat of Natasha Ramen, 20, another Guyanese, as she was leaving her Hollis home on March 15, 2007.
The young woman was scheduled to testify against Megnath in a rape trial in Brooklyn Supreme Court.
“In trading her life for what he thought would be his freedom, he must now be sentenced to the maximum of life in prison without the possibility of parole,” the DA said in a statement printed by the website.
Megnath was free on bail while awaiting his Brooklyn trial during the time he killed Ramen.
In February last US prosecutors had been given the green light to use DNA tracking technique that can nail criminals with a speck of blood or the mere touch of a finger against Megnath.
The New York Daily News had reported that Queens Judge Robert Hanophy ruled that prosecutors could have told jurors about a trace of blood on a seat belt of the victim’s car that was linked to Megnath through “touch DNA” testing.
According to the report, the technique has been used in other countries to win convictions in several high-profile criminal cases. Such evidence also has been used in US courts, and the city medical examiner has a lab devoted to it.
The tests were challenged by Megnath’s lawyer, Todd Greenberg, and the judge was forced to convene several hearings since 2008.
The report stated that the test is largely the same as traditional DNA analysis, but allows scientists to scrutinise microscopic skin or blood cells.
Ramen’s relatives had blamed prosecutors for her killing as they felt she might still be alive if prosecutors had done their job right and had the accused’s bail revoked.
The beautiful young woman’s throat was slit, allegedly by Megnath who was on bail on a charge of raping her.
It was revealed in court that the judge who presided over Megnath’s hearing for the rape charge never received information that the man had allegedly threatened to kill Ramen if she testified that he had raped her in May 2005.
The judge had granted Megnath $10,000 bail. Had the judge known of the murder threat allegation he could have thrown Megnath back in jail when the case was heard again.
Despite a protection order, Megnath had made frightening threats to Ramen’s in-laws at their home after he was arrested on aggravated harassment charges.
Even as she lay dying, Ramen had used her own blood, pouring from her neck, and her index finger to scrawl a message on the back door of her Queens’ home.
