Twenty-six-year-old Devon Chacon was yesterday released from prison after Justice Navindra Singh sentenced him to time served for the 2016 killing of father of two, Abdool Ameer Subrati whom he shot during a robbery.
Chacon was initially indicted for murder, but pleaded guilty to the lesser count of manslaughter, accepting that on October 20, 2016 at Herstelling, East Bank Demerara, he unlawfully killed Subrati during the furtherance of a robbery.
Mitigating on his behalf was defence attorney Ronald Daniels who told the court that his client was deeply remorseful for what he had done and takes full responsibility for his actions.
Daniels presented his client as a model prisoner of impeccable behaviour whom he said has been reformed and would contribute to society in a meaningful way if given a second chance.
For her part, however, Prosecutor Tuanna Hardy asked the judge to impose a sentence that would reflect the nature and gravity of the offence, even as she asked the court to bear in mind that it was a life which was lost.
In his brief address, Justice Singh said that he did not have much to say as both sides had already had extensive discussions regarding the matter and knew what had been decided upon.
Against the background of those discussions upon which the judge did not elaborate, he informed a visibly relieved Chacon that he was being sentenced to time served.
Justice Singh told him to view and use the opportunity given as a second chance while admonishing him to stay out of trouble.
Chacon who joined his hearing virtually from the Lusignan Prison thanked the judge in response and said that he was sorry for what he had done.
Hardy had indicated to the court that a brother of the deceased who had joined the proceedings virtually was desirous of making a victim impact statement, but he was no longer signed-in on the Zoom platform when the court was ready to hear from him.
Relating the facts of the case, Hardy said that relatives of Subrati had been visiting from overseas when the attack was carried out by Chacon and others at the home of the deceased.
Investigations she said were later conducted and Chacon was arrested and charged.
Police had said that two men, including a tenant at the Herstelling property, were picked out in identification parades as persons who were involved in the attack.
Subrati, 44, who was a driver with the Demerara Harbour Bridge Corporation, and of Lot 21 Back Street, Peters Hall, East Bank Demerara, was fatally shot after he put up a struggle with one of the two gunmen in the early morning attack.
He was rushed to the Diamond Diagnostic Centre and later transferred to the Georgetown Public Hospital, where he underwent surgery and then later succumbed at around 12.30 pm, the said afternoon.
Following the crime, police in a statement, had said that the attack was committed on an overseas-based Guyanese couple— Abid Subrati and Amika Appiah. Ameer Subrati, the statement said, “put up a struggle with one of the gunmen and was shot in his neck, after which the men escaped.”
The family of the dead man, however, told this newspaper that he was shot while the men were firing wildly during the robbery.
