Five years for killing taxi driver

Daniel Goolcharan, a 28-year-old Mayaro electrician, who was charged with the murder of taxi driver Elwyn Sampson, got a chance in life yesterday when the State and the court accepted his plea on the lesser count of manslaughter. He was sentenced to five years hard labour. Goolcharan had entered into a plea bargain with the Director of Public Prosecutions.

In accepting the manslaughter plea, senior State prosecutor Wayne Rajbansie told Justice Melville Baird that in fairness, Goolcharan said he never caused the injury to Sampson and thus it was not at his hands that Sampson’s death was caused. Furthermore, it is absolutely plain that Goolcharan was not the ringleader in the criminal enterprise. The court was also told the course Goolcharan had adopted would allow him to assist in the administration of justice. The man charged with actually slashing the throat of Sampson goes on trial in September. Representing Goolcharan and negotiating his plea bargain were attorneys Larry Lalla and Nadia Asraph.