Labourer jailed for 10 years for strangling wife to death

Justice Herbert Volney told Bobby Ricky Surjulal, of La Romaine, that although he knew the killing was not premeditated, he had to pass a substantial sentence on him. The objective being, the judge added, that the wrong message must not be sent to persons with domestic problems.

Ricky Surjulal, of Claude Street, La Romaine, was charged with the murder of his 21-year-old wife, Latisha Ali on September 27, 2002. Last month, he pleaded guilty to the lesser count of manslaughter before Justice Volney in the San Fernando First Assizes.

According to the State’s case presented by State Attorney Adia Mohammed, it was about 7 pm when Surjulal’s wife, a babysitter, confessed to husband Ricky Surjulal that she was having an affair with a maxi taxi driver named "Dougla."

The court heard that in a written statement to Homicide Assistant Superintendant of Police Ruthven Paul, Surjulal stated, "We start to talk and she tell me she with Dougla — the maxi driver. She was talking cool all the time, then she say she not leaving him. She tell me I can’t satisfy she and she went in a hotel with him. I couldn’t take it no more and I strangle she with the bag strap."

The woman’s body was found by three men the next day near the Ste Madeleine Sugar Factory. Surjulal was arrested two days after the murder. In a plea for mitigation, defence attorney Dexter Bailey said Ricky Surujlal had no pevious or pending convictions.