Over the years, members of the public have questioned the state’s decision to accept manslaughter pleas from murder accused, particularly in those cases where men have brutally killed their female partners or exes and then receive seemingly light sentences for their heinous actions.
State Prosecutor Natasha Backer told Stabroek Weekend that she had those very concerns before becoming a state counsel. However, she explained that because of how unreliable jurors are, by accepting the guilty plea the prosecutors are guaranteed that the accused will receive a sentence.
“You might say, no, we are not accepting it and then you leave it to the jury, and we all know what happens with juries sometimes,” she said.
Asked if the weight of the evidence is considered before such a plea is accepted, Backer responded in the negative, while pointing out that “the sad reality is that no matter the weight of the evidence, there is no guarantee that the jury is going to return a verdict of guilty, because remember things can happen that are not supposed to happen.”
As to whether the relatives of a victim consent to the plea, Backer said there is no legal requirement for this as the offences are not committed against a complainant per se but against the state. She said that if approached, the prosecutor would take the opinions of those persons into consideration, but it is not legally mandated.
She pointed out that persons generally reveal things after the fact and as a result she suggested that what may need to be explored is a more open line of communication between the prosecution and the families of the deceased.
“Because it could be that they didn’t know we were going to take the guilty plea, so they feel blindsided after it happens,” she said, though she added that they are often informed of the plea.
Asked about the criticism by some that the state counsel agrees to the guilty pleas out of laziness, Backer pointed out that if the matter does go to trial and the accused walks, “those same people would say the prosecutor take money. It is damned if you do and damned if you don’t”.
“Those are the allegations we live with every day,” added Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions’ spokeswoman Liz Rahaman.
They both noted that there are times when they present what could be considered air-tight cases and at the end of it all, shockingly, the jury returns a not-guilty verdict. “At least when they plead guilty, you have a guarantee. Yes you might not get as high a sentence as you might have gotten if you went to trial, but at least it is guaranteed they are going to get something as opposed to the risk of them serving no time at all. So, it is a balancing act,” Backer added.
In January last year, Michael Anthony Persaud pleaded guilty to killing his 19-year-old wife in 2011 and was sentenced to 15 years by Justice Sandil Kissoon. Persaud on December 23, 2011, murdered Maduri Padumdeo at Lot 8 North Sophia. Although charged with murder, Persaud pleaded guilty to the lesser count of manslaughter. In November 2014, Persaud was sentenced to 83 years in prison for the murder after he was found guilty by a 12-member jury. He then appealed the conviction and sentence arguing that the trial judge committed a number of errors which resulted in a miscarriage of justice and that the sentence imposed was too harsh. The conviction was then overturned and a new trial was ordered. Padumdeo’s nude body was discovered in the bedroom of the North Sophia home with a wire wrapped around her neck as Persaud lay beside her.
In February 2020, another man pleaded to the lesser account of manslaughter in the killing of his wife and was sentenced to 21 years by Justice Simone Morris-Ramlall. Sunildate Balack admitted that he killed Lilwantie Balack, 39. In sentencing the man Justice Morris-Ramlall said that in taking consideration of all the circumstances she found that a sentence of 35 years was appropriate. However, she said on account of his guilty plea, 11 years will be deducted and another three were deducted on account of the time the convict spent on remand. Balack, also known as ‘Redman’, of Lot 117 Mibicuri North, Black Bush Polder, admitted that between Thursday September 6, 2016 and March 31, 2017 at Mibicuri North, Black Bush Polder, he killed Lilwantie Balack, 39, of the same address. The woman’s remains were found buried behind the couple’s home months after he had reported that she had left the country.
In 2018, Justice Brassington Reynolds sentenced a Rose Hall, Corentyne man to ten years in prison after he pleaded guilty the lesser count of manslaughter in the killing of his common law wife in May, 2016. Desmond Gordon was charged with the murder of Bhagmattie Etwaroo, 50, at their Lot 196 Mangrove Street, Rose Hall, Corentyne. During the argument he dealt the woman several chops and she jumped from the stairs of the upper flat to the bottom flat of her house to escape blows from Gordon. However, he had already chopped her about her body, including her neck. The woman ran into the storeroom where she collapsed.
There was also the 2017 case of 20-year-old Angelique Williams, who was sentenced to eight years in jail for the 2015 killing of her pregnant best friend, Lloyda Renita Thomas, whom she stabbed some 22 times. Williams had pleaded guilty to fatally stabbing Thomas and while she pleaded not guilty to murdering the young mother of one, she admitted guilt on the lesser count of manslaughter for unlawfully killing her best friend on December 23, 2015 at Versailles, West Bank Demerara. The sentence was handed down by Justice Navindra Singh at the High Court in Georgetown, after the presentation of a probation report previously requested by Williams’ attorney, Mark Waldron. Prosecutor Tuanna Hardy had asked the judge to visit the young convict with a sentence commensurate with the crime. She reminded the court that at only 21 years old, Thomas, who was in her third trimester with her second child, sustained 22 incised stab wounds at the hands of someone she trusted and considered her best friend.
And in 2013, an Essequibo resident Suresh Persaud, who beat his wife to death, was sentenced to 14 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to manslaughter before Justice Franklyn Holder. Persaud, called ‘Gye,’ had pleaded not guilty to the charge of murder but changed his plea to guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter after Justice Holder admitted his statement to police into evidence at the conclusion of a voir dire (trial within a trial). In October 2010, Persaud beat Nandranie Narine, 40,with a wood and a grater, after which he inserted a bottle into her vagina. She was found with wounds to the face and head in her Columbia, Essequibo Coast home by her son, Talesh Narine, who had gone to visit her. She was living with Persaud at the time. Justice Holder had told the man that he was an evil and wicked man who committed a heinous crime. He then sentenced him to 22 years in prison, but deducted eight years for the time he had been incarcerated, the mitigating plea of his attorney, his guilty plea, which did not waste the court’s time and his plea for leniency.
There have been cases where the state has refused to accept a guilty plea to a lesser count from those indicted for murder.
Recently, Beverley Persaud and Oswald Junior Yaw, the `hitman’ she hired to kill her husband, Nathan Andrew Persaud, at Herstelling pleaded guilty to murder and were given long sentences.
Following the empanelment of a jury to hear the case, Justice Singh had adjourned the matter to officially commence the trial but when the case was called, the duo indicated to the court that they no longer wished to proceed to trial and instead threw themselves at the mercy of the court pleading guilty to the charge of murder. However, in this case the prosecution did not accept pleas to the lesser offence of manslaughter, which then saw the two pleading to the capital offence on which they had originally been indicted. Justice Singh sentenced Persaud to 29 years in jail and Yaw to 39 years.
