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2011 Linden shallow grave murder …Farmer gets 65 years for killing brother- in- law
By Rehanna Ramsay
After six years of incarceration and three trials in the High Court, 37 year old Lakeraj Fredericks, a citrus farmer from Linden, has been jailed for 65 years for murder.
Jailed for 65 years, Lakeraj Fredericks
The sentenced was handed down by Justice Navindra Singh at the Georgetown High Court, yesterday. Fredericks was found guilty of the June 2011 shallow grave murder.
He was convicted of the crime after a mixed jury returned a unanimous verdict for murder last week.
According to the facts of the matter, Fredericks killed Clifton Bonus, his brother-in-law on Saturday, June 4, 2011.
Bonus’s body was found buried in a shallow grave at ‘Old English,’ Back Dam, Linden, days after he was reported missing.
Bonus, called “Mutts”, was shot twice in the head with a .32 pistol before he was buried almost three feet deep beneath groves of cannabis.
It was reported that Fredericks and the victim had an argument over some missing marijuana seeds, moments before he (Bonus) was shot and killed.
Fredericks was subsequently arrested and charged with the crime.
Before the sentence was passed yesterday, Defense Counsel Madan Kissoon made a plea of mitigation on his client’s behalf.
During his submission, Kissoon told the court that his client had an unblemished record, prior to the conviction.
According to Kissoon since incarceration, Fredericks has set out on a new path and has become an exemplary prisoner. The lawyer told the court that his client has been baptised, and has started taking Bible study classes.
To this end, the attorney believes that his client could be a reformed member of society if he is given a chance at reintegration.
State Prosecutor, Siand Dhurjon, on the other hand, asked the court to consider that the victim was just 21 years old when he was murdered.
“He was barely a man,” Dhurjon said adding that the attack was unprovoked and senseless
The Prosecutor emphasized, too, that the accused would have shared close relations with the victim prior to the fatal incident —— he was his brother-in-law. As such Dhurjon asked the court to hand down “a firm penalty” as punishment for the senseless act.
Before he could be sentenced, Frederick beseeched the court for mercy. He, however, maintained that he did not kill his brother-in-law.
After taking into consideration the mitigating and aggravating factors of the matter, Justice Singh sentenced Fredericks to serve 65 years in jail. The judge ordered that the prison authority deduct the time the accused would have already served on remand prior to his trial.
Fredericks had faced two separate High Court trials (before Justice Jo-Ann Barlow and Justice James Bovell-Drakes) in relation to the said matter. However, both proceedings ended in hung jury verdicts, resulting in retrials.
During his last trial, Fredericks claimed that the police had forced him to sign a statement of which he had no knowledge. State Prosecutors Siand Dhurjon and Tuanna Hardy called 12 witnesses to the stand.
Among them were police witnesses who told the court that on June 8, 2011, they were among a party of policemen, who were led on a five-mile trek through a dense forest to the spot where the victim was buried.
The search party was led by 16-year-old Harley Tyson, who is said to have helped to bury Bonus after he was shot. Tyson was also charged with the murder but the case against him was dismissed for lack of sufficient evidence.
Additionally, during the trial, Detectives Troy Yorrick and Ewin Trotman testified that on June 16, 2011, they visited Lakeraj Fredericks in prison, where he was on remand for another murder.
During the visit, Fredericks is said to have confessed to the murder, telling the police that he did shoot Bonus, but it was only once.
Fredericks had claimed that the victim was shot a second time to head by another man, adding that this was the shot that killed him.
However, during the trial, the State had pointed out that the trajectory of the injuries which Bonus sustained made it almost impossible for another shooter to be involved in the crime.
Further, in his evidence before the court, Government Pathologist Dr. Nehaul Singh said that the victim died as a result of the gunshot injuries he sustained.
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