Appeal Court upholds 25-year prison sentence for convict

The Court of Appeal on Thursday dismissed the appeal of Travis McDougal, who was challenging his 25-year jail sentence for manslaughter.

In 2017, McDougal was tried before Justice Navindra Singh at the Demerara High Court for the August 18, 2014 murder of businessman Ashok Kumar Raghoo, who was fatally shot during a robbery.

However, a 12-member jury found McDougal guilty of the lesser count of manslaughter and he was sentenced to 25 years imprisonment.

McDougal had moved to the Appeal Court, challenging the severity of his sentence.

The appeal was heard via Zoom by Chancellor of the Judiciary (ag) Justice Yonette Cummings-Edwards, and Justices of Appeal Dawn Gregory and Rishi Persaud.

He was represented by attorney-at-law Nigel Hughes and associates while the State was represented by the prosecutor, Natasha Backer.

The Chancellor, who delivered the ruling, said that the Court did not find that the trial judge erred in law in his sentencing.

She also said that the sentence imposed by the trial judge was appropriate taking into consideration the mitigating and aggravating factors of the case.

Thus, the Chancellor dismissed his appeal and affirmed McDougal’s 25-year sentence.

McDougal shot and killed the Kitty businessman and injured his wife, Shyrazadi during a robbery.

The incident occurred at the traffic lights at the junction of Regent Street and Vlissengen Road, in the vicinity of the Botanical Gardens while the couple was in their car.

Two men rode up on a CG motorcycle at the driver’s side; one of the men grabbed a haversack containing $4M, but Shyrazadi held onto the haversack and was shot in the thigh but survived the incident.

Raghoo was pronounced dead at the Georgetown Public Hospital.

In July 2015, McDougal was committed to stand trial for murder along with pork-knocker Jermaine Otto. Otto was one of the prisoners that perished in the deadly Camp Street prison fire, following riots in March 2016.