Three men were sentenced to 11 and a half years imprisonment on Tuesday by High Court Judge, Navindra Singh after they confessed to killing 23-year-old electrical engineer, Saleem Azeez Abdool, during an attempted robbery in 2014.
Glenroy Griffith called ‘Boyo’, 27; Jerald Ward called ‘Grey Patch’, 36; and Julian Mapp called ‘Yazey’; 39, were arraigned for the murder but opted to plea to the lesser count of manslaughter.
The trio admitted that on October 19, 2014, at Delhi Street, Prashad Nagar, Georgetown, they murdered Abdool. Griffith, Ward and Mapp were represented by attorneys-at-law Ronald Daniels, Keoma Griffith and Adrian Thompson, respectively.
The attorneys, during their pleas of mitigation, apologised for their clients’ action as they requested a lenient sentence. State Prosecutor, Tyra Bakker, who presented the facts, told the court that on the day in question, the trio made a plan to go into the “bourgeoisie” community of Prashad Nagar and commit criminal activities.
While scavenging the area, the men saw Abdool, who had just arrived home and was about to enter his premises. Abdool ran away and the men discharged several rounds in his directions.
The men escaped while Abdool was rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) where he succumbed shortly after. A post mortem examination revealed that he died from a gunshot wound to his head.
Prosecutor Bakker asked the court to consider that that the crime was a premeditated act and was not only senseless but also cowardly.
Bakker asked the court to consider that the Abdool’s life was snuffed out by the trio and so the sentence should send a strong message to youths that they should not succumb to peer pressure.
Abdool’s father also spoke during the hearing and broke down in tears when he reflected on the loss of his son. The grieving man explained that Abdool was his only son and was the first to person in the family to go to the University of Guyana.
“His life was taken away by bandits,” the father said as he explained that he never had the chance to see his son get married or start a family.
Justice Singh, after considering the trio’s early guilty plea, sentenced them to serve 11 and a half years each. The judge further ordered that the prison authorities deduct from the sentence the time the trio spent in pre-trial custody from the time of their arrest in 2014.
