GUILTY! Former coastguards sentenced to death for gold miner’s murder

Three former coast-guards of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) were on Tuesday sentenced to death for killing a young gold dealer back in 2009 after robbing him of some Gy$ 17 million and dumping his body in the Essequibo River. Family members of the late Dweive Kant Ramdass shouted for joy when the 12-member jury returned the unanimous guilty verdict before Justice Franklyn Holder at the Suddie High Court.
The condemned former coastguards are Devon Gordon, Sherwin Hart and Deon Greenidge. Their lawyers said they will appeal the decision.

The death sentence for the trio was read after the jury returned with the guilty verdict. During the sentencing, family members of the accused coast-guards broke down in tears while the death sentence was read out.
The deliberation period commenced on 16: 27h and concluded on 17: 05h. Before handing down his sentence, Justice Holder asked the accused if they had anything to say and again they proclaimed their innocence.
In court, one of the accused lawyers Latchmie Rahamat said the former army ranks will appeal the decision. According Rahamat, the pathologist who performed the autopsy on the remains of the gold miner revealed that he died on August 21, 2009.
Rahamat said the defence case will continue to hold that the coastguards are not guilty because they were in police custody on August 20, 2009.
Speaking to the court and the jury, Justice Holder gave a detailed summary of the case. The case commenced sharply at 10: 00h. The courtroom was packed with family members of the deceased as well as the accused coast guards.
Justice Holder told the jury that the law must be applied to the case and circumstantial evidence is important to note. He asked the jury to consider carefully the testimonies of each witness. Justice Holder told the court and the jury that 16 witnesses testified in the matter, one being a civilian who he named as pathologist Dr Vivekanand Bridgmohan and others being police officers.
Justice Holder said the state is relying on the evidence to justify the case with the principles of law such as “Felony murder” “Common design-joint enterprise” being applied.
Holder said the murder of the gold miner is suspected to be a joint venture, according to the prosecution witnesses. The judge said the prosecution case is that the accused committed the act of murder “jointly”.
Prosecutor Judith Gildharie-Mursalin represented the state’s case while Attorney Peter Hugh and Lachmie Rahamat represented the three accused.
Reacting to the sentence handed down by Justice Holder, family members of Ramdass said they are satisfied with the decision. They commended the effort of Justice Franklyn Holder and the jury for the decision.
The family members, who travelled from Bartica to hear the judge’s decision, said they were anticipating the moment four years now. Brother of the deceased, Richard Ramdass said “I really admired the way the prosecution took the evidence,” noting that losing his brother was very emotional. He said his brother was only 23 years old when his life was brutally snatched away from him. Ramdass said due to his brother’s death, his family diverted from gold business to construction due to fear.