The conviction and 20-year jail sentence for 47-year-old Clevon Romeo of Lima, Essequibo Coast, for the October 24, 2012 murder of a 56-year-old businessman, Herman Ramnarine, was today affirmed by the Court of Appeal.
Ramnarine was murdered at about 20:15 hrs on the day in question.
Reports are that Ramnarine’s wife, Haimwantie Ramnarine, was at their Sea Dam Road, Lima home when two men, one of whom was armed with a cutlass, pounced on them.
Police said that they tied her up, took away an undisclosed sum of cash and a quantity of jewellery, and fled the scene.
Haimwantie later managed to free herself and went in search of her husband and found him lying motionless on the lower flat with injuries to his head, his hands tied behind his back, and a piece of cloth wrapped around his neck.
As a result, he was immediately rushed to the Suddie Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival. A day after the incident, Ramnarine was positively identified as one of the men in the robbery.
In 2014, a jury had found Romeo guilty of the crime, and he was sentenced to 20-years behind bars in the Suddie High Court. Being dissatisfied with the High Court’s decision, Romeo, through his attorney-at-law Dexter Todd, appealed the sentence and conviction.
Todd contended that the trial judge made several errors in law, which effectively render his conviction and sentence unsafe and should be set aside.
He further argued that his sentence is excessive and severe in all circumstances of the case.
The appeal was heard by Chancellor of the Judiciary Justice Yonette Cummings-Edwards and Justices of Appeal Dawn Gregory and Rishi Persaud.
During the virtual hearing, State Prosecutor Natasha Bakker disclosed that there was a notice of abandonment and that the case should be dismissed.
In response, Todd told the court that Romeo’s relatives terminated his services after the appeal was filed.
Despite the preceding, the attorney indicated that he would still provide legal guidance to the convicted killer. As such, he asked the court to consider that this was Romeo’s first brush with the law.
In passing down a ruling, Justice Cummings-Edwards dismissed the appeal and stated that the conviction and sentence still stand.
The appellate reduced the sentence, in so far, to reflect the time he spent on remand in keeping with the principles outlined in the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) case of Romeo Da Costa Hall vs. The Queen.
The CCJ, in that case, held that full credit should be granted for the time an accused person spent in pre-trial custody. The court further ordered that the sentence imposed on Romeo will take effect from the time of his conviction in 2014.
