15 years jail for ‘Rasta Beans’ who admitted to shooting death of pork-knocker

Dein Evans called ‘Rasta Beans’ was on Friday sentenced to 15 years imprisonment for fatally shooting a 24-year-old pork-knocker in 2018 at Puruni Landing, Cuyuni River.

Last month, Evans, 32, formerly of Charlestown, Georgetown was arraigned before Justice Priya Sewnarine-Beharry at the Suddie High Court for the capital offence of murder.

However, he opted to plead guilty to the lesser count of manslaughter which read that on November 11, 2018, at Puruni Landing, he unlawfully killed Xavier Boyal.

During the sentencing hearing on Friday, the Judge considered the nature and gravity of the charge, his guilty plea and the fact that he did not waste the court’s time.

She also took into consideration that Evans, according to prison authorities, was allegedly operating a contraband business within the prison walls and had to be moved to another section.

As such, she sentenced him to 15 years behind bars and ordered that the prison authorities deduct from his sentence the time he spent on remand.  He was represented by attorney-at-law Ravindra Mohabir, while the state was represented by prosecutor Tiffini Lyken.

According to reports, on the day in question, Boyal left his mining camp at about 21:00hrs with a colleague for the Junior Disco and later in the evening, the same colleague had an altercation with Evans, who cuffed him [the colleague].

Boyal intervened and pushed Evans away after which he and his colleague decided to leave the disco and walk back to the camp along the Puruni Road.

It is alleged that Evans jumped into the front seat of a jeep and ordered the driver to follow Boyal and his friend, during which the suspect pulled a black handgun from the waist of his pants, pointed it towards the windscreen and discharged a round in the direction of Boyal, who was walking on the road.

Boyal fell to the ground and Evans exited the vehicle and shot the injured man again before he escaped. He was later arrested and charged.