Labourer guilty of beheading uncle, awaits sentencing

Oct 19, 2019 News

He essentially said that he was innocent of the charge and could not see how the jury found him guilty. This was what 29-year-old Dwayne Tappin, whom a jury found guilty by a jury yesterday for the August 06, 2017 murder of his uncle, Randolph Seenauth, 51, said.

GUILTY: Dwayne Tappin

He hacked off Seenauth’s head with a cutlass before fleeing.
Tappin, a labourer, of Plaisance, East Coast Demerara was on trial for the murder before Justice Sandil Kissoon and a 12-person jury at the High Court in Demerara.
The now convicted killer, who was represented by lawyer Gwendolyn Bristol, had initially pleaded not guilty to the charge. Following the jury’s verdict, Bristol requested that a probation report be prepared on her client to aid with sentence. Her request was granted by Justice Kissoon who ordered that Tappin be remanded to prison until November 14, when he returns to court for sentencing.
Shortly after the murder had occurred, Commander of Police ‘C’ Division Calvin Brutus, who was at the scene, had told reporters that Seenauth and his nephew lived in separate apartments on the plot of land. He said that around 04:30hrs neighbours heard a loud commotion coming from one of the apartments at 125 South Better Hope, East Coast Demerara.
The place was silent for a few minutes, which led them to suspect that something was amiss. Neighbours then called out for Seenauth but got no response. They later contacted the Sparendaam Police Station. Police ranks arrived shortly after and upon pushing the front door to Seenauth’s apartment, found his head lying in a passageway between the living room and kitchen.
Further checks were made in the apartment and the rest of the man’s body was discovered on a mattress in the bedroom. During Tappin’s trial, Police Sergeant Detective Keivin Martin was stationed at the Sparendaam Police Station where Tappin was in custody. The police witness told the jury that around 09:55hrs, he told Tappin of an allegation that he murdered his uncle and cautioned him in accordance with the judge’s rule.
He said that after administering the caution, Tappin replied, “Officer, me guh tell yuh the truth of this story, what happen.” Sergeant Martin said that he thereafter inquired from the murder accused if he wanted to give a statement and he replied, “Yes” and elected him to write the statement.
According to the police rank, one of his colleagues and Tappin’s sister witnessed the taking of the statement.
Sergeant Martin said that in relating a story, Tappin told him, “Sir this is what happen. Me guh at me uncle at Lot 125 South Better Hope, where meh mother use to live, but me mother move out and I get a key for the house…Every time I go there, he [Seenauth] always attacking me when I go there. When I go there this morning, he attack me with a cutlass after I open the door with me key…
“I suspect he was drunk so I tek way the cutlass from he and fire three chops…I then throw way the cutlass in the cane field at the back of Better Hope.”
Also testifying was Government pathologist, Dr. Nehaul Singh, who said that Seenauth’s body bore several cuts on the hand, which he deemed as defensive wounds. The doctor said, too, that the man’s body had a laceration under the ear. The pathologist added that the man’s head was severed from his body using a sharp object he opined to be a cutlass.

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