2011 murder of Robb St granny: Men serving 50-year jail sentence move to CCJ

Two men who were initially sentenced to 81 years’ imprisonment each for the 2011 murder of a Robb Street, Georgetown pensioner, but had their sentences reduced to 50 years by the Court of Appeal of Guyana, have now moved to the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) in an effort to quash their conviction and sentence.
In 2015, Demerara High Court Judge Navindra Singh sentenced Orwin Hinds, Cleon Hinds, and Roy Jacobs to 81 years in prison each for the murder of 71-year-old Clementine Fiedtkou-Parris. But in April 2022, their sentence was reduced to 50 years by the appellate court. The CCJ has scheduled October 11 to hear an appeal from the two Hinds; it is unclear if their co-convict Jacobs has filed an appeal.

The charge the men had faced detailed that, on June 30, 2011, they murdered Fiedtkou-Parris pursuant to an arrangement wherein money was intended to be passed from one person to another. The elderly woman was shot and killed on the night of June 30, 2011, at her Lot 42 Robb Street, Georgetown home.
It was reported that three men had gone to the woman’s home asking for “Auntie”, and when the elderly woman emerged from her bedroom, one of them pulled out a gun and shot her several times to her upper body. The men then fled the scene in a waiting motor car while the elderly woman was rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital, where she was pronounced dead. It is believed that a bitter dispute over a property might have been the motive for her killing.
Following a trial before Justice Navindra Singh in 2015, they were found guilty of the crime by a 12-member jury. Justice Singh had imposed the 81-year prison term on each of them and had ordered that they do not become eligible for parole until after serving a minimum of 45 years. However, their attorneys had asked the Guyana Court of Appeal to quash their conviction and sentence.
The appeal was heard by Chancellor of the Judiciary (ag) Justice Yonette Cummings-Edwards and Justices of Appeal Dawn Gregory, SC, and Rishi Persaud while Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Teshana James-Lake was the prosecutrix.
In delivering the court’s ruling, Justice Cummings-Edwards stated that the court allowed the appeal in relation to the men’s sentence, but not their conviction.
She said the court found that the previously imposed sentence was manifestly excessive, even though she admitted that the crime was a “gruesome murder”.
The fourth convict in the elderly woman’s murder, Kevin October, died in prison.
As such, his appeal against his conviction and sentence was discontinued. (G1)