Murder convict who appealed 80-year sentence to know fate on Wednesday

Balram Singh, the 50-year-old resident of Agricola, East Bank Demerara (EBD) who is appealing his conviction and 80-year prison sentence for the 2010 murder of a taxi driver, will know his fate on February 9, when the Guyana Court of Appeal delivers its judgement.

Following a trial before Justice Navindra Singh in 2015, Balram Singh was found guilty by a jury of the January 2010 murder of taxi driver Bhomeshwar Sukhdeo.
After the custodial sentence was imposed by Justice Navindra Singh, the convicted killer filed an appeal in which he asked that his conviction and sentence be set aside. Among the grounds of appeal argued by the convict is that his sentence is manifestly excessive.
Balram Singh, through his lawyer Nigel Hughes, has argued that there is no basis in law to support the trial Judge commencing his sentence at a base of 60 years. On Singh’s behalf, the lawyer has noted that the trial Judge made additions to the base sentence without any jurisprudential basis.
Moreover, through his lawyer, the convict has submitted that the Judge made several errors in law during his trial, such as failing to adequately put his defence to the jury for consideration.

This appeal was heard by the Chancellor of the Judiciary, Justice Yonette Cummings-Edwards, and Justices of Appeal Dawn Gregory and Rishi Persaud. Senior State Counsel Diana Kaulesar-O’Brien appeared for the prosecution.
Media reports are that Sukhdeo was killed between January 19 and January 27, 2010. He had been kidnapped and robbed of his vehicle. His charred remains were discovered in Mocha, EBD, days after he had gone missing. He reportedly was shot to the head, and his body burnt.
During Balram Singh’s trial, it was revealed that he had given a caution statement to the Police in which he admitted that he and an associate had murdered Sukhdeo, a father of two.
He told detectives that his associate had shot Sukhdeo to the left side of the neck with a .38 revolver, and had later dumped his body.
The convict related that on January 19, 2010, he and his associate had gone to Georgetown. He said that while he waited, his associate returned in a white car driven by Sukhdeo. According to the caution statement, they then drove to Agricola, where Sukhdeo was told to stop.
Balram Singh said it was then that his associate pulled out a gun from a haversack he was carrying and shot Sukhdeo to the head. They then drove the dead man’s vehicle to Eccles, EBD, where they dumped his body in the bushes.
They later retrieved the body from Eccles and took it to Mocha, where they burnt it. (G1)