Written by Leroy Smith
Days before the anniversary of his abduction and gruesome murder, Dhanraj Latchman’s Killer pleaded guilty to a lesser count of manslaughter, and each got 15 years jail. His mother, however, is yet to accept the ruling.
In June 2014, 18-Year-old taxi driver Dhanraj Latchman from Lusignan, East Coast Demerara (ECD) was hired, his car was then hijacked, and he was gruesomely murdered by two teenaged customers who took him under the guise that they were going to uplift some money.
The men who are now 20 and 21 years respectively were recently sentenced to 15 years jail term each, after pleading to a lesser count of manslaughter. The taxi driver and his passengers were all from the same village, Lusignan but lived several streets apart.
Today (Thursday, June 15, 2017), the mother of the dead taxi driver told the News Room that while the court might deliver justice for the killing of her son, she has not received the justice deserved.
Tarmattie Dabie, speaking from her 115 Lusignan Pasture home said when one considers the brutality meted out to her son, and the fact that the two accused pleaded guilty to the crime, the sentence ought to have been more.
On the day in question, the accused placed a seat belt around the neck of Latchman and strangled him before forcing him in the back seat of his car when he stopped responding.
They drove to Hoboo Backdam, Parika, East Bank Essequibo, and dumped him there. It was disclosed, however, that after they saw him moving, they decided to again take a piece of wood, wrap it around the seat belt they had cut and used the wood to tighten the severed belt around the young’s neck until he died.
The men then flung the victim’s body deeper into a clump of bushes and left him there. They then drove away with the car which they had arranged to sell to a man. The man had earlier saw them in the company of the taxi driver, but after they had returned to sell the car without the driver, he became suspicious. He then refused to purchase the car.
The dissatisfied mother said she has already begun engaging the attention of legal minds to appeal the sentencing which was handed down to the men. According to her, she has also visited the Chambers of the DPP but was told that there is not sufficient ground for the matter to be appealed. She is however not giving up.
In handing down his ruling, Justice Singh told the court that he took into consideration the killers’ expression of remorse and their attempt to become better persons in prison by engaging in the programmes offered there.
He sentenced both men to 15 years imprisonment and asked that the time served be deducted from the 15 years given.
