Sentencing hearing for wife killer deferred to next Monday

Next Monday, Berbice High Court Judge Navindra Singh will convene a sentencing hearing for a man who admitted to killing his reputed wife and stuffing her body in a barrel.

Initially indicted for the capital offence of murder, 34-year-old Suraj Veersammy, called “Radesh”, during his arraignment, opted to plead guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter.
He unlawfully killed Devika Narinedatt, called “Vanessa”, 24, on April 9, 2020.
State Counsel Nafeeza Baig is prosecuting.
According to reports, the partially decomposed body of the woman was discovered in a barrel floating in a trench at Belvedere, Corentyne, Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne).
After interrogation, Veersammy told detectives that the woman had threatened to end their relationship, and this had angered him and he had retaliated.

Initially, he had claimed that the late Narinedatt had hanged herself, but he later told Police that they had an argument, during which he had taken a bed sheet to hang himself.
However, in the process of doing so, the woman had continued arguing, and that had prompted him to hang her instead, but not before he had hit her in the head.
After committing the act, Veersammy had said, he had left the house; but he had returned later, cut down the woman’s body, and stuffed it in a barrel which he later dumped in a nearby trench.
When the woman’s body was discovered, a bed sheet had been tied tightly around her neck, and her body had borne marks of violence on her left eye, left shoulder, left hand, and leg, and stomach. Police had arrested Veersammy at the Dharm Shala at Fort Canje in Region Six. Narinedatt, a Venezuelan national, had been born to Guyanese parents. (G1)