Regent Multiplex Mall owner Ganesh Ramlall was shot eight times, the High Court trial over his murder heard yesterday.
Testifying yesterday was Pathologist Dr. Nehaul Singh who said that Ramlall had been shot a total of eight times and died from related injuries.
Meanwhile, recalling the fateful night her husband was shot and killed after bandits pounced on their La Jalousie, West Coast Demerara property, Chitrakha Ramlall said that after her husband’s arrival home, she was alerted to loud explosions.
The woman was the time testifying at the trial of Kurt Erskine who is accused of murdering Ramlall, during a robbery.
The charge against Erskine, to which he has pleaded not guilty, alleges that on July 5th, 2015, in the company of others, he murdered Ramlall in the course or furtherance of a robbery.
The wife told the courtroom of Justice Simone Morris-Ramlall that as her husband did in on any other night, he called and told her that he was on his way home and after coming out of bed, she proceeded to the living room where she waited up for him.
She tearfully recalled that after his arrival sometime after midnight, he parked his vehicle and she opened the door to let him in the house and then proceeded to the upper flat of their home.
No sooner had she gotten upstairs, Ramlall said she heard “bullet” and her husband shouting “Thief! Thief!”
She said she then called out to neighbours who went to her assistance.
In between sobs, she said that after rushing back downstairs she saw her husband lying face-down on the ground and stripped of his gold and diamond jewellery.
Declaring, “We thought we could have saved him” the tearful woman said that they rushed her husband to the West Demerara Regional Hospital.
The trial continues this morning at 9 at the High Court in Demerara.
The State is being represented by attorneys Narissa Leander and Konyo Sandiford.
Erskine, meanwhile, is being represented by defence attorney Lyndon Amsterdam.
One person connected to the killing— Faizal Bacchus—who just over a week ago had pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter, was on Tuesday released from prison after being credited for time served.
With that credit and other deductions from an 18-year sentence, Bacchus was on Tuesday released from prison.
At a sentencing hearing on Monday, Justice Morris-Ramlall imposed a sentence of 18 years on the former taxi driver, but made a number of deductions, which included among other things, for his early plea.
Following the various deductions, the final remaining sentence of 6 ½ years was also discounted, since the Judge ordered that credit be given for the period the offender had spent on remand awaiting trial.
In the circumstances, he has been released from prison.
