Records of appeal in case of soldiers challenging death sentence still not ready

7 years after conviction

Outstanding records of appeal are hindering the start of proceedings in the case of former Guyana Defence Force (GDF) Coast Guards, Sherwin Hart, Devon Gordon and Deon Greenidge, who are challenging their conviction and death sentence for the 2009 murder of Bartica gold miner Dwieve Kant Ramdass. The men were found guilty of the crime in 2013 and shortly afterwards, filed appeals.

The three convicted killers first appeared at the Court of Appeal in October 2019. However, the court was unable to proceed with hearing the matter as a result of the missing appeal records. At that time, one of the men’s lawyers had informed the court that the records he received did not reflect a ruling in relation to a voir dire made by the trial Judge.
The lawyer had requested to have the minute book for the trial Judge. Another lawyer representing one of the men had indicated to the court that the evidence in the Judge’s summing up was inaccurate. In giving an example, the lawyer explained that what was said by a particular witness is recorded as being said by someone else.
In her address to the court, Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Dionne McCammon had noted that the records of the Judge’s summing up seem disjointed and “some of the pages do not flow.” Meanwhile, attempts have been made to locate the records and get them typewritten for the appeal hearing. This is still a work in progress.
In August 2009, the three former GDF Coast Guards were charged and remanded to prison for the August 20, 2009 murder of Ramdass. Following a Preliminary Inquiry, the Magistrate ruled that there was sufficient evidence against the men for them to stand trial for the killing before a Judge and jury.
Their trial commenced in May 2013 before Justice Franklyn Holder and a 12-person jury. According to facts, on the day in question, at Caiman Hole in the Essequibo River, the trio forced Ramdass into their boat and relieved him of $17 million, which he was carrying in a box for his employer. They then dumped Ramdass overboard.
The prosecution called 16 witnesses during the three-month-long trial. During the proceedings, the court admitted caution statements given by the former GDF Coast Guards to detectives. After deliberations, the jury returned a unanimous guilty verdict in relation to all three of the men for the crime. Justice Holder subsequently sentenced them to death by hanging.
Based on a previous report, Gordon in his statement said that he had only been a soldier for about a year and a half. He said that he was stationed at the Coast Guard section and was doing patrol work, which was mainly the “stop and search of vessels”. It was between 13:00h and 14:00h on August 20, 2009, that Gordon, Hart and Greenidge were on patrol.
Gordon said that they were doing searches with the Coast Guard boat. He had stated that Hart drove the boat to Parika. He said he observed Hart speaking to an East Indian man while at Parika. The man later joined them on the Coast Guard boat and they moved off from Parika. It was noted in Gordon’s statement that the man was carrying a “brown box”.
Gordon said when they were in the middle of the river; Hart stopped the boat and told them the man had “nuff money” in the box. Gordon in his statement said that all three of them decided to “kill the man” and “tek de money”. Gordon also said that he did not see who threw Ramdass’ body overboard, but just heard a splash in the water. He said that they divided the money and he called his sister to come and collect his portion. Gordon said that he gave a “canter man” the money to give his sister.
However, soon after they all got arrested, including his sister.
Meanwhile, Greenidge, in his statement, said that it was Hart who pushed Ramdass overboard. He said that after Hart pushed Ramdass overboard, he (Hart) gave him along with Gordon several million dollars to “shut up”.
The defence counsel brought up challenges that the men were beaten while in Police custody. All of the police witnesses denied those claims. The men in their defence all said that they did not write the caution statements and that the documents were written by Police ranks.