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Manslaughter convict files appeal
Rajen Dindial who was convicted and sentenced to 12 years imprisonment for the September 03, 2017, murder of Alston Henry, is asking the court to intervene. Dindial was convicted of the lesser offence manslaughter by a jury on November 13. The sentence was imposed by trial Judge Jo-Ann Barlow at the High Court in Demerara.
Rajen Dindial
Dindial, of Section ‘C’ Block Y, Golden Grove, East Bank Demerara, killed Henry, called “Boy”, at Grove Squatting Area, East Bank Demerara. It was reported that Dindial and Henry were at a wedding celebration at a house when an argument ensued between them after Henry pushed down a portable toilet and refused to pick it up. The court was told that Dindial became annoyed and armed himself with a paddle and dealt the victim several lashes about his body.
The court heard that Henry fell unconscious and was rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital where he succumbed some time after. Dindial’s lawyer, Nigel Hughes, has gone to the Court of Appeal, where he is arguing that the trial judge erred in law and fact when she failed to direct the jury to completely disregard the contents of the confession statement by Dindial, after it had been read to the jury and subsequently withdrawn from them.
According to Hughes, “The trial judge failed to address and/or adequately address the jury on several contradictory statements by the sole eyewitness and the manifest unreliability of the testimony of the sole eyewitness.”
Further, the lawyer argues that the trial judge erred in law when she failed to withdraw the case from the jury after reversing her decision to permit the caution statement into evidence and the only remaining implicatory evidence was manifestly unreliable.
Hughes also argues that the trial judge failed to direct the jury or adequately direct the jury on the contradictions between the testimony of the eyewitness and post mortem report, and that the trial judge erred in law in allowing the case to be put to the jury due to the manifestly unreliable evidence of the sole prosecution witness.
The lawyer contends, “The trial judge failed to explain or adequately explain the consequences of her decision to exclude the caution statement. The judge also misdirected the jury on the burden of proof in relation to the testimony of the pathologist.”
Apart from these, Hughes is also challenging the 12-year jail sentence impose on his client, saying that it is manifestly excessive.
During the State’s case, which was presented by State Counsel Shawnette Austin, and State Counsel Sarah Martin, an eyewitness to the beating, Kemis Harris, said that around 11:30hrs, he was walking through a street where the wedding was being held when he saw Henry push down a portable toilet. He said that the portable toilet was a few feet away from the wedding house at the intersection of the street. According to the witness, several persons rushed up to Henry and one of them, a man, whom he described as a stranger to the community and a friend of Dindial, lashed him to his face with a bottle that broke as a result.
In retaliation, he said Henry picked up a case of empty beer bottles and threw it at the man’s face, but missed. It was then, he said, that Dindial armed himself with a paddle which he used to lash Henry to his neck. The witness added, “When Boy [Henry] get that chop lash… Dindial kept on lashing Boy until he can’t move…on his face and on his chest.” Harris added that Dindial’s brother, who is only known by the call name, “Doggy”, kicked Henry to his face as the injured man lay on the ground.
He added that he only reported what he saw to the police after he heard that Henry had died. The witness related that when he visited the police station, he identified Dindial as the ‘beat man’.
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