After an agonising 12-year wait for justice for the murder of her son, Colin Ruiz, on Mother’s Day 2005, Grace Ruiz was left angry, hurt and disappointed at the sentencing of his killers on Friday, refusing their courtroom pleas to forgive them.
Shadeed Dalia, Jason Surujlal and Ishmael Khan were sentenced by Port-of-Spain High Court Judge Devan Rampersad to 20 years in prison for kidnapping Ruiz, robbing him of $18,000 and burying him in a shallow grave in Waterloo. Ruiz was around 28 at the time and married with two children, aged seven and nine. His killers were in their 20s, too.
The men of Friendship Village were reportedly close friends of Ruiz, a car alarm businessman of San Fernando.
What had Grace devastated over their sentencing was that they have already served 12 of the 20 years in remand waiting for a hearing, With that deducted from their sentences it means in eight years time they will be free men.
The trio received the sentence after they were allowed to plead guilty to the felony murder of Ruiz.
Under the felony murder rule judges are permitted to waive the mandatory death penalty in circumstances where death occurs during the commission of a lesser criminal offence, in this case robbery.
Rampersad initially considered a 30-year sentence for the men but applied a one-third discount afforded to accused people who plead guilty to crimes.
A distruaght Grace told the T&T Guardian she waited in the court from 9 am to 2.30 pm for the sentencing, looking forward to getting justice for her only son’s death.
She said after the sentence she began weeping and had to be assisted out of the court by the prosecutor, Joy Balkaran.
Grace said during the proceedings, her son’s killers asked for a chance to tell her sorry. “They said Miss, Colin mom, sorry for what we did. We know this can’t bring him back but we sorry from the bottom of we heart.”
Grace said she did not respond since she was still unable to forgive them. “How can you brutally murder your own friend? He was no gangster, no limer. He trusted his friends.”
She said the hearing left her emotionally drained and she cried out at one point in time and ran out the court in horror. “The lawyers for each of the men were reading their statements giving all the details of what they did to my son. I relived that ordeal of 12 years ago.”
Grace recalled on the day her son was killed, she felt stabbing pains in her belly, a nervousness and a feeling something was happening. “Every stab they gave Colin (reportedly 18) I felt it. I did not know he was killed as yet and tried calling him but could not get through to him on his phone.”
She said there was nothing she can do now about what she felt was an unfair sentencing. “If they had heard that case right after it happened, those men would have been sentenced to hang. But 12 years after, the police photographer and the Justice of the Peace involved in the case died.”
Grace said while waiting for the hearing of the case, which was constantly postponed over the years, she got all kinds of sicknesses, including high blood pressure and diabetes. She said she stopped working at her sewing shop/boutique, Bold and Beautiful in Cocoyea, San Fernando.
“I never came to terms with Colin’s death.”
She admitted, however, yesterday’s final sentencing of the men brought her some kind of closure. “I said, yes boy Colin, like you really gone.”
Grace said for the last 12 years she always felt she made some kind of mistake in thinking her son had died. “I would be driving and see a man who resemble Colin and say he was still alive. Or I would see a little boy in his school khaki pants and blue shirt and remember my child.”
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