Five men from Claxton Bay, who kidnapped and murdered a San Juan businesswoman in 2006 but were convicted of the lesser offence of manslaughter, were yesterday each sentenced to 28 years in prison.
However, Phillip “The Boss” Boodram, Roger Mootoo, Ricky Singh, Kervin Williams and Aaron “Arc Eye” Grappie will be released in a little over 17 years as the time they spent on remand awaiting trial was deducted from their sentence.
In passing sentence on the group at the Hall of Justice in Port-of-Spain yesterday, High Court Judge Norton Jack said that the mitigating factors in favour of the prisoners were not enough to warrant a further reduction in their sentence.
“The horrific amalgam of aggravating factors related to the offence is quite sufficient to overshadow the effect of both the aggravating and mitigating factors related to the offenders,” Jack said.
Samdaye Rampersad was kidnapped by masked men while standing in front of her home in Petit Bourg, San Juan on November 25, 2005. Her body was found 41 days later in a shallow grave in a cashew field in Springvale, Claxton Bay. The prisoners were eventually convicted in March.
Rampersad’s brother, Mervyn, was contacted several times after his sister’s kidnapping by a man who demanded a $2 million ransom for her safe release She was already dead when the ransom demands were being made.
One of the State’s witnesses, forensic pathologist Hughvon des Vignes, testified that an autopsy of Rampersad’s body showed she died of asphyxia and suffocation consistent with being buried alive.
However, he suggested that the men may not have known that Rampersad was still alive when they buried her.
During the trial, it was revealed that the State’s main witness, Nigel “Cat” Roderique, was at the remand awaiting trial for murder. Roderique’s confession implicated the prisoners in the matter while he was in police custody for his alleged involvement in another murder. In April, last year, He was allowed to plead guilty to the felony murder of Nigel Allen, of Cocoyea Village, San Fernando. Allen was kidnapped, straggled and stabbed with a digging fork before being buried in a canefield in Claxton Bay in 2005.
He was sentenced to 18 years in prison but will be released in seven as he spent 11 years on remand before his guilty plea.
Roderique claimed he was present at a meeting at which Rampersad’s kidnapping was planned, and at her eventual death. He also alleged that Rampersad was kidnapped as the men wrongly believed that she was the mother of a man who had owed them money for drugs.
During yesterday’s sentencing, Jack rejected submissions from the men’s attorneys that they should be given different sentences to reflect their roles in the crime.
“Given the evidence as a whole no fine distinctions can be made to justify a differentiation between the roles of each offender,” Jack said.
Nine men were initially charged for Rampersad’s murder, with three — Vivian Clarke, Steven McGilvery and Pernell Martin — being convicted on manslaughter and sentenced to 30 years in prison in the first trial in 2009.
Another accused, Bobby Sankar, was acquitted during that trial. The five remaining accused were put on trial again in 2012 as the jury could not agree on a verdict on their role.
The group of men were represented by Evans Welch, Wayne Sturge, Kelston Pope, Danielle Rampersad and Delicia Helwig.
Tricia Hudlin-Cooper and Shivani Sharma prosecuted.
