Six years later… Ex- GDF Coast Guards convicted of murder challenge death sentence

Oct 16, 2019 News

Six years after they were sentenced to death by hanging for the August 2009 murder of Bartica gold miner Dwieve Kant Ramdass, three former Guyana Defence Force (GDF) coast guards Sherwin Hart, Devon Gordon and Deon Greenidge, will this morning be arraigned before the Appeal Court where they are arguing for their conviction and sentence to be overturned.

Devon Gordon

Deon Greenidge

Sherwin Hart

In August, 2009, the three coast guards were charged and remanded to prison for Ramdass’ murder. Following a preliminary inquiry, a Magistrate ruled that there was sufficient evidence against the men for them to stand trial for the killing before a judge and jury. So in May 2013, the men went on trial before Justice Franklyn Holder and a 12 person jury.

The prosecution’s case was that on August 20, 2009 at Caiman Hole in the Essequibo River they forced Ramdass into their boat and took him to the aforementioned location where they relieved him of $17M in cash he was carrying in a box to Bartica for his employer, before dumping him overboard. After much deliberation, the jury returned a unanimous guilty verdict in relation to each of them.

The three murder accused were then handed the death sentence. It was reported that during the men’s three-month long trial, the prosecution called 16 witnesses. The court would later admit caution statements said to be given by the men to detectives. Based on a previous report, Gordon in his statement said that he had only been a solider for about a year and a half. He said that he was stationed at the Coast Guard section and was doing patrol work, which was mainly the “stop and search of vessels”.

It was between 13:00hrs and 14:00hrs on August 20, 2009, that Gordon, Hart and Greenidge were on patrol. Gordon said that they were doing searches with the Coast Guard boat. He had stated that Hart drove the boat to Parika. He said he observed Hart speaking to an East Indian man while at Parika.

MURDERED: Dwieve Kant Ramdass

The man later joined them on the coast guard boat and they moved off from Parika. It was noted in Gordon’s statement that the man was carrying a “brown box”. Gordon said when they were in the middle of the river; Hart stopped the boat and told them the man had “nuff money” in the box. Gordon in his statement said that all three of them decided to “kill the man” and “tek de money”.

Gordon also said that he did not see who threw Ramdass’ body overboard, but just heard a splash. He said that they divided the money and he called his sister to come and collect his share. Gordon said that he gave a “canter man” the money to give his sister, however, soon after they all got arrested, including his sister.

Deon Greenidge, in his statement said that it was Sherwin Hart who pushed Ramdass overboard. He said that after Hart had pushed Ramdass overboard, he (Hart) gave him along with Devon Gordon several million dollars to “shut up”. During the trial the prosecution had put forward both police and civilian witnesses.

The defence brought up challenges that the men were beaten while in police custody. All of the police witnesses denied this claim. The men in their defence all said that they did not write the caution statements and that the documents were written by the police ranks.

While handing down the sentence to Hart, Justice Holder asked whether he had anything to say. Hart maintained his innocence to the court. “I’m innocent of this charge, your Honour,” Hart said. Gordon declined to say anything, while Greenidge also maintained that he was innocent. “My honour I’m not guilty…and it’s unfair for me to go to jail for something I know nothing about.”

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