Fisherman’s murder: Man, daughter to serve 4½ years more in prison

A Ruby, East Bank Essequibo (EBE) father and daughter, who beat a fisherman to death in 2017, have each been jailed for four years and six months for the unlawful killing.

Fifty-five-year-old Surendra Sukhdeo and his daughter Mandy Sukhdeo, 33, appeared at the Demerara High Court on Friday where they were ordered to serve the prison term.
Initially indicted for the capital offence of murder over the beating to death of 22-year-old fisherman Shereffudeen Nazamudeen, Surendra and his daughter, following a trial before Justice Jo Ann Barlow, were found guilty of the lesser count of manslaughter by a 12-member jury.

The duo was represented by Attorneys-at-Law Nigel Hughes, Konyo Sandiford-Holder, and Kiswana Jefford while State Counsel Latifah Elliot, State Counsel Marisa Edwards, and State Counsel Simran Gajraj were the prosecutors.
Before passing the sentence on the convicted killers, the Judge considered, among other things, social reports and favourable character references on them, mitigating and aggravating factors, and the circumstances under which Nazamudeen lost his life.
Although the maximum penalty for manslaughter is life in prison—which has been determined to be between 25 and 30 years—Justice Barlow explained that the maximum sentence was not warranted in this case and instead commenced at a base of 13 years.

Mitigating circumstances
From the base sentence, three years were deducted for mitigating circumstances and another five years and six months for the time the convicts spent in custody awaiting trial.
As a result, the Sukhdeos will have to spend four and a half years more incarcerated.
Both Surendra and his daughter had favourable character references. It was detailed that both of them completed anger management training offered by the prison.
Surendra is now serving as a peer educator and mentor in this training. As for his daughter, a psychologist who facilitates anger management training for prisoners described her as outspoken, and a kind, caring, and empathetic human.
He said he believes that she can gainfully serve society and can use her experience in the prison system to encourage errant members of society to stay away from crime.
The two Sukhdeos were first tried for the fisherman’s murder in 2021. But with the jury unable to reach verdicts, they were further remanded to prison pending a retrial.
They resided in the Ruby community along with the now dead fisherman.
At the time of this killing, Mandy Sukhdeo had been a Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara) Alliance for Change (AFC) Councillor, and her father, a Good Hope/Hydronie Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) Councillor.
It was reported that on February 14, 2017, Mandy Sukhdeo had claimed that she had been confronted by Nazamudeen, who had snatched her bag and attempted to escape.
She had reportedly raised an alarm, and residents in the neighbourhood had pursued Nazamudeen. Reports are that he was caught in the ruins of a house.
According to reports, he was tied up and beaten.
Following the beating, the man had suffered severe injuries to his body, and had been taken to the Leonora Cottage Hospital, where he subsequently succumbed.
Three pieces of wood, suspected to be the murder weapons, were recovered from the scene by detectives. The woman and her father were immediately arrested and later prosecuted. (G1)