Mom knocks ‘soft’ jail time for son’s killers

“These men robbed me of my only son and they robbed two young girls of their father and now to know just in a few years time they will be able to walk free. Is this the justice system?” Grace Ruiz, 57, cried in an interview with Sunday Newsday in San Fernando yesterday.

On June 14, 2005, which was Mother’s Day, the decomposed body of Collin Ruiz, 29, was found in a shallow grave off Roopsingh Road, Waterloo near Carapichaima.

An autopsy revealed the young man was stabbed 17 times before he was strangled.

Shaheed Dalia, Surujlal and Ishmael Khan were jointly charged for his murder. They later confessed to the killing. Last Friday, the men who pleaded guilty to felony murder each received a 30-year sentence.

However, Justice Devan Rampersad ruled that because of their guilty pleas, the men were granted a one-third discount on their sentencing.

Also, because they men spent the last 12 years awaiting trial, an additional amount of time was deducted from their sentence. Therefore, they will serve eight more years in prison.

The case was heard in the Port-of Spain First Criminal Court.

Ruiz recalled sitting disbelief until she burst into tears and left the courtroom.

“I could not believe it and I still can’t believe it, after all these years of going to court every month and face these monsters who took my son’s life. I still did not get the justice I deserve, my family did not get justice. His two daughters did not get the justice they deserve.” Collin was a security system specialist.

Ruiz believes if the case had been called in a timely manner, justice would have been “surely served”.

“Families don’t get the closure and the ones who are happy in the end are the families of the accused. This is not right.

“I have had to sit and listen in detail how these three men stabbed my son over and over, 17 times before dumping his body in a grave. I don’t have any forgiveness in my heart for them and I don’t know if I will ever reach to that point. Everyday I cry, I have relived the moments when police took away my son’s body in a bag over and over and especially on Mother’s Day.” Ruiz has fought to become a beacon of strength for her granddaughters who are now 19 and 21. They were seven and nine when their father was killed, and have had counselling to cope over the years.

Collin’s sister Abi, 35, said her greatest fear is that the men who took her brother’s life would be re-integrated into society.

“In a few years these men could be standing next to me in lines in the bank, supermarket or any other organization.

The society is small and this is what we have to live with for the rest of our lives,”Abi said.

She felt the justice system serves the accused and their families and not the victim and their families.