Berbice carpenter’s murder: Sentencing for convicted quintet deferred to Jan 19

A sentencing hearing for the five men convicted of the 2016 murder of Berbice carpenter Faiyaz Narinedatt has been adjourned to January 19, 2023, whereas it was initially set for December 28, 2022.
Orlando Dickie, Radesh Motie, Diodath Datt, Harri Paul Parsram, and Niran Yacoob were convicted on November 4 following a trial before Justice Navindra Singh and a mixed 12-person jury in the Berbice High Court. Their conviction has been predicated on the prosecution’s case that between October 31 and November 1, 2016, in the county of Berbice, they murdered Narinedatt, a 26-year-old father of two.
These convicted men were represented by Murseline Bacchus, SC, and Attorney-at-Law Arudranauth Gossai, while Attorney-at-Law Latchmie Rahamat had been appointed special prosecutor by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
During their trial, four eyewitnesses were among those who gave testimony. It was revealed that on the night of October 31, 2016, Narinedatt had attended a party hosted by US-based Guyanese businessman Marcus Bisram at his home. At some point when Narinedatt had gone to use the washroom, Bisram followed him, and allegedly began making sexual advances to him by touching his penis. The carpenter rejected the advances by telling Bisram, “Me don’t go in for man. Me got wife and children”. And with Bisram refusing to cease his advances, Narinedatt slapped him and walked away.
An upset Bisram had reportedly walked to the front of his yard and informed Dickie, Motie, Datt, Parsram, and Yacoob that Narinedatt had slapped him, and had instructed that they must “kill um dead”.
Accordingly, the carpenter was severely beaten with pieces of wood, and his lifeless body was dumped on the public road at Number 70 Village, Corentyne, Berbice. One of the men had then used his car to drive over Narinedatt’s body in order to make it appear that he had been the victim of a vehicular accident.
Bisram had departed for America, but was extradited to Guyana to face a charge for the carpenter’s killing. However, at the end of two separate Preliminary Inquiries (PI), he was discharged/freed because of insufficient evidence.
The DPP, Shalimar Ali-Hack, SC, had thereafter stepped in and had directed the Magistrate to commit Bisram to face a trial at the High Court. Bisram challenged the DPP’s directive, and it was subsequently quashed by a High Court Judge, who also barred Ali-Hack from proffering a murder indictment against him.
An appeal against that Judge’s decision was filed by the DPP to the Court of Appeal of Guyana, which overturned the lower court’s decision and ordered that Bisram be arrested and tried for the capital offence.
Bisram then challenged the local appeal court’s ruling at the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ). In the end, the apex court restored the High Court Judge’s decision, but ruled that nothing prevented the DPP from having Bisram re-arrested and charged again if fresh evidence were obtained linking him to the murder. (G1)