Londons sentenced to death

Kenrick London, and wife Chandroutie were both sentenced yesterday to death by hanging, after a jury found them guilty of the murder of their daughter, Vidya.

In passing sentence, trial judge Justice Ivor Archie told the Londons: “Only the two of you can know in the final analysis, why you did it. This is not your first time and yet it is my belief that there is no soul that is beyond redemption in the eyes of the Lord, but that is not my duty.” Kenrick stared stone-faced as the death sentence was read to him, while Chandroutie was reduced to tears. Asked if he wanted to say anything to the court, Kenrick insisted that he was innocent. “I did not kill my own daughter,” he said, “and I know God will help me one day to come out because he is my right judge.”

Chandroutie held on to the hand of her lawyer, Learie-Alleyne Forte, and wept when her verdict was read. She declined when asked if she wished to address the court, and closed her eyes and shook her head. The mixed jury, which comprised five women and seven men, deliberated for three hours and upon returning to the courtroom the foreman indicated that they had only a verdict for Kenrick’s case, finding him guilty. Justice Archie told Kenrick: “The jury has found you guilty of murder and in my view it is in accordance with the evidence. And yet I can feel no satisfaction to which I am bound to pass on to you, only a profound regret that a life has come to this.” The judge continued: “You have embarked on occult activities to enslave others. The end result is the enslavement of your own spirit and mind, and so you end up participating in an activity that is stunning in its senselessness, its depravity.”

Justice Archie allowed the panel a further half an hour to deliberate on Chandroutie’s verdict, and within 20 minutes the judge was called to the courtroom. As the guilty verdict was read to her, the judge told her: “The jury has rejected your assertion that under the influence of your husband he induced you to commit a crime which you did not commit. The jury has found you guilty, we must all accept that. I do not know the whole truth of the circumstances of your life, but you said that two years ago you made some changes. It is to God now that you must turn to seek his strength and solace which you did not find in your home and marriage.” The State’s case as led by DPP attorneys Jerron Joseph and Joan Honore-Paul, was that on a date unknown sometime between October 24, 1993 (the child’s date of birth) and December 2, 1997, Chandroutie and Kenrick wrapped their two-year-old daughter in pieces of cloth and a bag, tied it to a large boulder and threw her down a latrine pit while the child was still alive. The reason for killing the child was to gain favour with Chandroutie’s mother, who did not approve of having a grandchild of mixed descent.

Kenrick and Chandroutie were married in July 1993 and rented a small board house at Caratal Village, Gasparillo. A neighbour, Lystra Brown Sinclair recalled seeing a female child, approximately three months old, with the Londons, but by early 1994 she stopped seeing the baby. When she inquired as to the whereabouts of the child, they told Brown that they sent the child to live with a relative in New York. Verna Lewis, the London’s landlord told police she saw the child in September 1995 when she went to collect the rent.

The Londons were arrested by Sgt Dhanraj Bismath on November 30, 1997 at Sum Sum Hill Road, Claxton Bay and the next day during an interview with Sgt Didanath Ramkissoon at the Chaguanas Police Station, Kenrick explained that Vidya was living with “Lollipop” in Marabella. However, in the presence of the accused at the police station, Lollipop, whose real name is Elanor Ali, denied that she was given the child. After two days in police custody, Chandroutie confessed to police that she and Kenrick had killed Vidya and had thrown her “in the latrine hole”. Police recorded a statement from Chandroutie. Hours later at the station, Kenrick also confessed.