Baby killer to hang

When Kyle Basdeo received the blow to the head with a cutlass, he was asleep in the arms of his mother — Toy Basdeo, 36, at their Manahambre Road, Princes Town home. The incident occurred on November 11, 2003. The baby’s mother testified before Justice Herbert Volney and a 12-member jury that she told her husband Basdeo, that Kyle was not his child.

In a fit of rage that fateful night, Basdeo, 49, a labourer, whipped out a cutlass and fired chops at his wife.

The guilty verdict was announced after three-and-a-half hours of deliberation by the jury, which had been adjudicating in the trial since last week Wednesday.

Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions Joan Honore-Paul led evidence that on the night in question, Basdeo, who was drunk, entered the bedroom with a cutlass, where Toy and the baby were asleep.

Toy, who was the State’s main witness, testified that she was awakened by the sound of a cutlass being banged against the bed. She said she opened her eyes and saw her husband Basdeo charging at her with the cutlass upraised. Basdeo, Toy told the jury, fired a chop at them which hit baby Kyle on the head. The woman told the judge and jury how she felt the blood flowing from her child "warm and heated."

Toy testified that Basdeo then told her, "Everything is over now. I go kill you now."

Toy had testified, however, that since the day she became pregnant with Kyle, she had informed Basdeo that the child was not his. "From the day I was pregnant he knew that baby Kyle father used to be by us often," Toy told the jury.

The jury heard that upon his arrest, Basdeo confessed to the killing. Insp Edward Castillo testified that accused Basdeo said, "I really chop. I couldn’t keep it. I do it. I telling you flat. I wouldn’t deny."

Basdeo, who was defended by attorney Ruppert Frank, opted not to testify in his defence, but remained silent in the dock.

Yesterday, Volney, after passing the death sentence on Basdeo, noted that the situation may not have reached such a stage if a policeman had acted differently when he visited the house the day before the baby’s killing.

Volney said that PC Sookdeo of the Princes Town Police Station, who had responded to a report of violence filed by Toy against Basdeo the day before the murder, should have exercised better judgment and taken Basdeo away from the "inflamed situation."

When asked by Volney yesterday if he had anything to say before sentence was passed, Basdeo told the judge, "This trial was not fair. My wife was not fair. She was dishonest to me and she turn on me."