Deosaran Bisnauth, who was in 2017 sentenced to life imprisonment for manslaughter, has now approached the Appeal Court asking for his conviction and sentence to be overturned.
Deosaran Bisnauth
On April 18, 2017, Bisnauth, then 19, was handed a life sentence after a 12-person jury found him guilty of unlawfully killing Robert Mangal called “Trevor.”
Nicknamed “Strokes Mouth”, Bisnauth is arguing that trial Judge Navindra Singh made numerous errors in law, and as a result, his conviction is not safe and cannot stand. He was initially indicted for Mangal’s murder by State prosecutors. However, the jury returned an 11-1 guilty verdict in favour of the lesser offence of manslaughter.
Facts state that on July 6, 2013, at Enmore, East Coast Demerara (ECD), Bisnauth and Mangal were imbibing alcohol at a shop when a fight broke out between them.
An eyewitness testified that he saw when Bisnauth hit Mangal thrice with a piece of wood which was almost four feet in length. The witness said that Mangal fell face down on the ground.
Bisnauth had claimed that he acted in self-defence after Mangal charged him with a rum bottle. But State prosecutors had dismissed Bisnauth’s claim and maintained that he was, in fact, the aggressor. The prosecutor submitted that Bisnauth attacked Mangal, whose back was turned.
Government Pathologist Dr Nehaul Singh had given his cause of death as cerebral haemorrhage due to blunt perineal trauma to the head. Another doctor had testified that the injuries Mangal sustained were life-threatening. A total of 15 witnesses testified during this trial at the High Court in Demerara.
At the time of the killing, Bisnauth was 16.
