Pleas for mercy for Samdaye’s killers

Kelston Pope and Delicia Helwig- Robertson drew the judge’s attention to the relevant legal authorities on sentencing for the offence of manslaughter as well as the probation officers’ reports and prison bio-social reports completed on their clients.

The men were all described as family-oriented without the likelihood to re-offend.

Phillip “The Boss” Boodram, of Dow Village, California; Roger Mootoo, of Springvale Village, Claxton Bay; Ricky Singh, of Cedar Hill Road, Claxton Bay; Kervin Williams and Aaron “Arc Eye” Grappie, both of Pranz Gardens, Claxton Bay, are before Justice Jack in the Port of Spain Fifth Criminal Court.

They will be sentenced on May 26.

Pope and Helwig-Robertson submitted that Jack was not bound by the 30-year sentence imposed on three other men who, in 2009, were sentenced to 30 years each for their role in Rampersad’s kidnapping and killing.

The three were Vivian “Clarkie” Clarke; Steve “Boops” McGilvery, 27 and Pernell Martin.

They asked Jack to begin with a 15-year sentence and take into consideration the other mitigating factors in the men’s favour.

The men were convicted of the lesser count of manslaughter after a trial which lasted two years in the Port-of-Spain High Court. They were found not-guilty of murder for which they were indicted.

It was the third trial with one occurring in 2009 and the other in 2012. Both resulted in jurors not being able to arrive at unanimous verdicts. The latest trial began in September of 2015 and ended in March this year.

Rampersad, 45, of Irving Street, Petit Bourg was snatched from her home on November 25, 2005. Her decomposing body was dug out of a shallow grave in a cashew field in Claxton Bay on January 5, 2006.