Two convicts were on Thursday sentenced to life imprisonment for the 2017 brutal murder of a fellow inmate at the New Amsterdam Prison in Berbice.
Dillon Boucher, 31, formerly of Haslington, East Coast Demerara (ECD), and Ramchand Latchman, 29, formerly of Number 65 Village in Corentyne were sentenced by Justice Sandil Kissoon at the Berbice High Court.
Earlier this month, a 12-member jury found the men guilty of murdering Neshan Jagmohan, 27, on June 21, 2017, at the prison facility.
Initially, Rooplall Abrahim was charged alongside Boucher and Latchman. In 2020, he pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter and received a 17-year sentence in exchange for cooperating with the State. He appeared as their star witness in the trial against his co-accused.
During the sentencing hearing, Jagmohan’s mother, Pamela broke down in tears as she delivered her victim impact statement.
“I’m very hurt because my son was innocent. He was very hard-working, he is the one who helped us in the rice field,” the grieving woman said.
Pamela said that her son had four children and after his demise, his wife was going to put them up for adoption, but she took them in instead.
With whatever little savings she had, Pamela said she built a “little house” and she is now responsible for their upbringing.
“I’m selling at the market to take care of them…It is very hard,” the woman said as she explained to the court that she suffered a nervous breakdown after losing her son.
In his sentencing remarks, Justice Kissoon considered that the victim was unarmed and alone, without an escort or prison officer present when he was attacked by the two accused, along with Abrahim.
The judge described the murder as a “cold, calculated and deliberate” act, which placed it at the high end of the scale of gravity and seriousness.
Consequently, Boucher and Latchman were sentenced to life imprisonment with the possibility of parole after serving 30 years.
Boucher, Latchman and Abrahim were already on remand at the time for separate murders. Neshan Jagmohan and his younger brother Ramnarine Jagmohan were also on remand for murder.
On June 21, 2017, at the New Amsterdam Prison, the three murdered Neshan and wounded his brother, Ramnarine with intent to murder him as well.
The men are yet to be tried for the lesser offence.
On the day in question, the Jagmohan brothers had in their possession an improvised weapon which they intended to sell to an inmate whose name was given as Delroy Frazer to murder Boucher.
However, Boucher got wind of the plot and was under the impression that the Jagmohan brothers were a part of the plot. Therefore, he along with the two other inmates attacked the Jagmohan brothers.
Neshan sustained 25 stab wounds on his body and succumbed at the New Amsterdam Public Hospital, while Ramnarine was stabbed in his right side.
The Jagmohan brothers were on remand for the 2013 murder of Corentyne businessman Devindra Deodat, 34. However, in 2019, Ramnarine was acquitted of the crime.
Abrahim is currently serving two life sentences in addition to the 17-year jail term for brutal murders.
Boucher is no stranger to the law, in 2009 he was charged with robbery and was sentenced to two years in jail. In 2015, he was charged with robbery again and was sentenced to four years in jail.
