2016 pirate attack: 4 now plead guilty to murdering fishermen

The fourth man to enter a guilty plea in relation to the 2016 pirate attack that claimed the lives of four fishermen is Leon Sammy.
Sammy, originally of Number 75 Village, Corentyne, Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), changed his not-guilty plea to guilty in relation to four counts of murder when he appeared before Justice Sandil Kissoon at the Berbice High Court on Wednesday.

Apart from Sammy, Ganesh Naidoo of Number 79 Village, Corentyne; Ramesh Singh of Liverpool Village, and Stephon Leacock of Number 77 Village, Corentyne have also pleaded guilty to murdering the fishermen during a piracy attack on May 28, 2016 on the Corentyne Coast.
The quartet’s sentencing hearing is set for Monday, December 4, following the presentation of probation and other social reports to Justice Sandil Kissoon.
The men confessed to killing Dhanpaul Ramphal, also known as “Sunil,” 38; Munish Churman, 26, also known as “Boyo,” of Number 60 Village; Dochan Sukra, 54, called “Butcher”; and 45-year-old Hemchand Sookdeo, aka “Dread”, a father of five from Number 55 Village, Corentyne, Berbice.
Meanwhile, the fifth accused, Ramchand Latchman, has entered not-guilty pleas, and his trial will commence next Monday before a mixed 12-member jury.
Singh and Leacock are being represented by Attorney-at-Law Tuanna Hardy, while Naidoo and Sammy are being represented by Attorney-at-Law Kevin Morgan.
Hours after the attack, Sookdeo’s body was discovered entangled in seines with a chop wound to the back of his skull. However, his three other crew members: Churman, Sukra, and Ramphal, are still unaccounted for, and thought to have perished.
The three missing fishermen were reportedly tossed overboard while still tied to an anchor. According to reports, one of the five men had admitted to the crimes and implicated Latchman.
Seepersaud Persaud was the captain of Rosana 664, the vessel which came under attack. In the attack, Persaud was hurled overboard, but he made it through the ordeal alive.
Fuel and other equipment, as well as the fishermen’s daily catch, were taken by the bandits.
A few days later, Police visited No. 65 Village foreshore in Corentyne in response to information they had received, and they observed a boat that matched the description of the vessel used during the attack. On board, Police found the four confessed killers and Latchman.
Last month, Ramchand Latchman and another man were each sentenced to life imprisonment, with the possibility of being paroled after 30 years, for their involvement in the killing of a fellow prison inmate. The sentence was imposed after a jury had found them guilty of murder.
Neshan Jagmohan, a cane harvester formerly of Hampshire Squatting Area, Corentyne, had been remanded on a murder charge in connection with the October 2013 murder of Davendra Deodat, a 34-year-old businessman of Hampshire Squatting Area, Corentyne.
After appearing in court on June 21, 2017, he had returned to his cell in the New Amsterdam Prison, where he was attacked by inmates armed with homemade weapons.
Jagmohan was taken by ambulance to the New Amsterdam Public Hospital, where was immediately pronounced dead. A post-mortem examination determined that he had died from puncture wounds to the heart, lungs, and kidneys.