Twenty-nine-year-old Dwayne Tappin was this afternoon found guilty, by a jury, of murdering his 51-year-old uncle Randolph Seenauth whose head he hacked off on August 06, 2017 at Lot 25 South Better Hope, East Coast Demerara. Tappin, a labourer, of Plaisance, East Coast Demerara, was on trial before Justice Sandil Kissoon at the High Court in Demerara for the capital offence.
The jury, after deliberations, returned with its verdict around 15:00hrs. In spite of this, Tappin, when asked to address the court, maintained that he was innocent and expressed that he could not see how the jury could find him guilty. His lawyer, Gwendolyn Bristol requested that a probation report be prepared on her client.
Prosecutor Mandel Moore and Abigail Gibbs presented the State’s case. It was previously reported that on the day in question, Tappin chopped off his uncle’s head with a cutlass during an argument. Seenauth’s head was found in a passageway between the living room and kitchen; the rest of his body was discovered on a mattress in the bedroom.
During Tappin’s trial, a police detective had testified to taking a caution statement from him.
According to the police witness in the caution statement, Tappin said: “Sir this is what happen. Me guh at me uncle at Lot 125 South Better Hope where me mother use to live, but me mother move out and I get a key for the house…Every time I go there, he [Seenauth] always attacking me when I go there…When I go there this morning, he attack me with a cutlass after I open the door with me key…I suspect he was drunk so I tek way the cutlass from he and fire three chops…I then throw way the cutlass in the cane field at the back of Better Hope.”
