Mahaica man challenges conviction, 56-year sentence in Appeal Court

Jan 22, 2021 News

Foster Gravesande.

Kaieteur News – Foster Gravesande, has moved to the Appeal Court to challenge a conviction and 56 years jail sentence which was imposed on him for murder.
Last December, Gravesande a father of three from Mahaica, East Coast Demerara was found guilty by a 12-member jury for the April 9, 2017, murder of 49-year-old Courtney Porter.
He was sentenced to 56 years in jail by Justice Navindra Singh at the High Court. However less than a month after the sentence was imposed, Gravesande, through his lawyer Dexter Todd moved to the Appeal Court, arguing among other things, that the sentence was manifestly excessive and severe in all the circumstances of the case.
Gravesande contends further, that the trial judge failed to sufficiently address the many deficiencies in the prosecution’s case in particular, and the many contradicting evidence of the eye-witnesses.

Murdered: Courtney Porter.

As a result, he said that the verdict of the jury was unreasonable and cannot be supported having regard to the evidence.
During the trial, Gravesande maintained that he was not guilty of the crime.
He had reportedly beaten Porter with a wood over an alleged altercation that the man (Porter) had with his wife.
Prior to the sentence, when he was granted the opportunity to address the court, Gravesande begged for mercy.
He told the judge “It is very difficult for me. I am punishing in prison, my family is hurting, my business is affected and I cannot contribute to my community as I would like to.”
“I am very sorry for the life lost and I apologize to the family. I am willing to contribute to them in any way possible, I just need mercy … Sir, and I’m not a bad person. What you see here, this is just me. The only thing about me is that I love women,” he said.
However, State Counsel, Teriq Mohammed, noted that while the accused appears to be giving the court reasons that warrant leniency, the case concerns the senseless killing of one friend by another. The prosecutor asked the court to hand down a sentence that is suitable for the crime of a loss of life.
Justice Singh had agreed with the submissions of the State Counsel.
He noted that although the father of three claimed he was remorseful, he did not believe he was truly sorry about what he did.
“This was truly a senseless act. There is nothing to support your claims that this man assaulted your wife. Even your wife in her testimony could not back up your statements…you came into my court and lied to my face … I see no mitigating factors here,” the Judge told Gravesande before imposing judgment.
He nonetheless deducted four years from the base sentence of 60 years for time that Gravesande spent in prison pending trial.