12-year sentence affirmed

However, the court ordered the sentence to run from date of sentence — November 22, 2004, instead of yesterday, when the appeal ended.

The prisoner, Cleophas Mornix, had pleaded guilty to the offence and had agreed to testify against Beverly Pierre, who was charged with the murder of Cynthia Dharrie Maharaj.

Pierre, a maid working for Maharaj, had plotted to rob Maharaj with Mornix and a man called Sheppe. Pierre had arranged with the men to leave the door open at Maharaj’s St Clair home so they could gain entry to the building.

The men entered the building on November 11, 1999, caused some damage but did not steal anything. They then left. Sometime later, they heard that Maharaj had been murdered.

At the appeal hearing yesterday before Justices Roger Hamel-Smith, Stanley John and Ivor Archie, Mornix’s lawyer Owen Hinds Jr made a valiant effort to have his client’s sentence reduced to ten years.

Mornix had struck a deal with the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to plead guilty to the charges, and testify against Pierre. In return, the DPP promised to ask the court to impose a non-custodial sentence on Mornix.

The DPP did as promised, but trial judge Justice Prakash Moosai made it clear early in the trial that sentencing was exclusively his right and that he may or may not adhere to the DPP’s recommendation. After looking at the global picture of the circumstances in the case, the judge said it was a case that warranted a custodial sentence, and he sentenced Mornix to 12 years, the maximum being 15.

In affirming the sentence, John said he agreed with special prosecutor Bindra Dolsingh that Hinds failed to show that the judge did not take all the sentencing factors into consideration.