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Life imprisonment for Grove man —who chopped neighbour over loud music
Andy Boodram
Andy Boodram of Grove East Bank Demerara, stood in disbelief yesterday as he was sentenced to life imprisonment for chopping his neighbour over noise nuisance.
The sentence was imposed by Justice Navindra Singh at Georgetown High Court around noon yesterday.
Boodram, called ‘Boy,’ on September 24, 2011, unlawfully and maliciously wounded Deonarine Persaud, called ‘Anil’, with intent to commit murder.
He was charged with attempted murder but was found guilty on the lesser (alternative) count of felonious wounding by a mixed 12-member jury.
Even in the face of the guilty verdict, Boodram maintained that he is innocent of the crime. He claimed that he did not chop the complainant but that “me and Anil had a fight.”
His lawyer, George Thomas, begged for a minimum sentence alluding to the fact that this was his client’s first conviction.
“He is 32 years old and a father of three,” Thomas told the court in his plea of mitigation.
However, State Attorney, Abigail Gibbs, asked the Court to consider the effects that the injuries had on the complainant.
“This court would have seen him and heard of the number of surgeries, which he underwent pursuant to the act,” Gibbs stated.
Justice Singh in imposing sentence told Boodram while the Law allows for flogging or life imprisonment as a penalty, “I will not sentence you to flogging.”
The Judge therefore imposed the life imprisonment on Boodram.
During his testimony, Deonarine Persaud that his neighbour,(Boodram) chopped him to the head after he (Persaud) called out to him to turn down loud music that was coming from his house.
Persaud recalled that during September 2011, he lived at Grove Public Road, East Bank Demerara. He said that Boodram was his next door neighbour.
He made it clear that he and Boodram were never friends and that he only knew him because he was a regular customer at a shop he operates at his residence.
Persaud, a father of one, told the court that alcoholic beverages were available for sale at the shop from which music was played to entertain customers.
Recalling the events that led up to the chopping incident, Persaud recounted that his wife had asked him to go and ask Boodram to turn down the volume of the music that was coming from his house.
He said that his wife made the request because their son who was 11 months old at the time had been sick and was sleeping.
“I was shouting for Andy Boodram so that he could come out. Andy Boodram came out on the platform and I asked him if he could turn down the music, please, because my baby was sleeping. And my baby was ill.”
But Boodram, Persaud said, refused to turn down the volume of the music by telling him, “Me ain’t turning down the f***ing music.”
According to the witness, “He (Boodram) kept cursing me and I curse him back.” He added that some time later he heard Shirley Singh, whom he had been chatting with earlier shouting, “Anil run! ‘Boy’ (Boodram) coming with a cutlass!”
Persaud told the court, “I did not run at the said time. As I turned around, Boy was already in front of me swinging the cutlass. I could not have run because Boy had already chopped me two times on the right side of my head.”
He related that as Boodram “broadsided” him with the cutlass, he used his arm to bar the blows and received a chop to his left thumb. He said that Boodram continued to broadside him with the cutlass even though he fell on his back.
Persaud said that he became unconscious and later woke up in the Georgetown Public Hospital where he spent two weeks after undergoing surgery.
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