Latest update May 30th, 2026 12:01 AM
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Elderly woman killed at Canal #2…Judge to rule on admissibility of caution statement
Justice Navindra Singh is expected give a ruling on a voir dire (trial within a trial), which was conducted to determine the
Murdered: ‘Budhia’
admissibility of a caution statement of the fourth named accused in a matter for which four men are on trial for the murder of Canal Number Two resident, Budhia.
Sixty-eight year-old Budhia also called ‘Ronui was murdered during a robbery at her home in Conservancy Dam at Canal Number Two, West Bank Demerara, (WBD). The woman was at the time sharing the home with her daughter and thirteen year-old granddaughter.
A post mortem examination conducted on the body of the elderly woman, determined the cause of death to be asphyxia due to manual strangulation.
Police investigations led to the arrests of Nigel Sookram, Steve Sookdeo called ‘Coolie Boy’, Roy Anthony Sewnarine and Vishal Seecharan called “Markie,” who were subsequently charged with the murder.
The men are on trial at the High Court before Justice Singh and a mixed twelve-member jury. The accused are being represented by Attorneys-at-Law Huckumchand Parag and Raymond Alli.
Justice Singh is expected to rule on whether the statements procured from Vishal Seecharan were freely and voluntarily given and can be admitted into the trial.
Earlier in the trial, the caution statement belonging to one of the accused (Sookdeo) was read to the court. According to the statement, Sookdeo detailed that he, “Nigel, Markie and Roy,” had planned the robbery which took place on October 20, 2008.
Sookdeo had told police investigators that he and his colleagues had hired a car at Herstelling, East Bank Demerara and travelled to Canal Number Two, WBD, where they broke into the house and tied up “the old lady” and other occupants of the one-flat building before robbing them of cash and jewellery.
At the commencement of the matter, State Prosecutor Judith Gildharie-Mursalin had called the victim’s daughter, Basmattie Rampersaud to the stand. Rampersaud recalled the night of the incident. She told the court that thieves broke into her house and made off with more than a million dollars in cash and jewellery.
She said that the bandits bound the occupants of the house, all females, including her elderly mother, using duct tape. The woman said that the perpetrators not only robbed and terrorized her elderly mother, but that she was killed in the process.
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