Beverley Persaud, who reportedly paid to have her husband killed, and the man who carried out the heinous act for $1.7 million, were on Tuesday sentenced by High Court Judge, Navindra Singh.
Persaud, 53, was sentenced to 29 years in jail, while Oswald Junior Yaw, called “Meow”, 28, was sentenced to 39 years in jail. They both will become eligible for parole after serving a minimum of 20 years imprisonment each.
Last month, the duo was arraigned for the capital offence of murder but opted to plead guilty to the lesser count of manslaughter. They admitted that on September 10, 2015, at Herstelling, East Bank Demerara, they unlawfully killed Nathan Persaud.
Yaw was represented by Rachael Bakker, while Persaud was represented by Ravindra Mohabir. A probation report was completed for the duo, but it was not read in court.
Bakker, in her plea of mitigation, told the court that Yaw expressed sincere and deep remorse for his actions. According to Bakker, her client was preyed upon by Beverley, who played with his emotions.
Attorney Mohabir, on the other hand, told the court that Beverley was abused by her husband and that she suffered a miscarriage at four months before she was severely beaten by the victim.
Meanwhile, prosecutor Tiffani Lyken, informed the court that the couple separated in 2014; the victim moved out from the family home due to divorce proceedings and dispute concerning the property.
The court heard that Beverley entered into an arrangement with Yaw, who was a frequent visitor at her house; the arrangement was that Yaw would kill Nathan for $1.7M with the money being paid in instalments.
Yaw and the victim were friends and on September 10, 2014, Yaw went to Nathan’s Lot 66 Herstelling house; while inside, Yaw attacked Nathan and left him unconscious.
The victim’s battered body was later found and he was rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. A post-mortem examination revealed that he died from haemorrhage and shock due to multiple injuries. There was evidence of multiple sharp and blunt force trauma to his head, neck, and upper back.
Prosecutor Lyken read the victim impact statement of Nathan’s mother, Sylvie Persaud in court. The grieving woman said that the cruel death of her son tore her apart, but she remembered a conversation that she had with him on that fatal day when he said, “to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.”
“My son was killed in one of the cruel ways you can think of,” the woman said in her letter.
Yaw, during his address to the court, said that he threw himself at the mercy of the court so that he can go home.
Meanwhile, Beverley asked the Judge to consider her circumstances and said, “may the soul of the deceased find eternal peace.”
