Thirty-year-old Michael Anthony Persaud was on Wednesday sentenced to 15 years and six months imprisonment after he confessed to strangling his 19-year-old reputed wife in 2011 at their Sophia, Georgetown home and sleeping next to her corpse.
Persaud, called ‘Mickey’ was charged with the capital offence of murder but opted to plead guilty to the lesser count of manslaughter when he appeared before Justice Sandil Kissoon at the Demerara High Court.
He admitted that on December 23, 2011, he unlawfully killed Maduri Padumdeo, called ‘Sharda.’
In November 2014, Persaud was sentenced to 83 years imprisonment by Justice Navindra Singh for the same offence after he was found guilty of murder by a 12-member jury, however, he appealed the conviction.
The Court of Appeal later overturned the conviction and ordered a retrial which led to Persaud’s guilty plea Wednesday.
Justice Kissoon ordered that Persaud’s time spent on remand since December 29, 2011, be deducted from his sentence by prison authorities.
In December 2011, Padumdeo’s body was discovered naked in the bedroom of her 10×10 apartment, with a black and white wire wrapped around her neck.
The Stabroek News had reported that her landlady, Dataday Doodnauth, who was living in the adjacent apartment, had called a nearby police station with a domestic violence report after she saw Padumdeo being dragged into the apartment by her husband.
The court was told that Padumdeo had told Persaud that she did not love him anymore and that she was in love with Chanderpaul, her employer, who ran a cane juice stall on the East Coast Railway Embankment.
Persaud’s attorney Glenn Hanoman described the situation as a “triangular love affair” as he noted that his client dropped out of school at the age of 13 because he was a slow learner.
However, according to the defence lawyer, Persaud has since gained an education while behind bars and in 2015, he won the award for best essay and short story competition and was able to complete a six-week domestic violence programme.
“He is ready to be reintegrated back into society,” the attorney said during his plea of mitigation.
Meanwhile, State Prosecutor Tuanna Hardy urged the court to consider that the deceased was 19-years-old at the time and her now 10-year-old son is without a mother.
According to the Prosecutor, the theme behind the heartless crime was alcoholism and domestic violence.
