Latest update November 13th, 2024 12:06 AM
Feb 03, 2024 Court Stories, Features / Columnists, News
Kaieteur News – A career criminal is back in jail after he pleaded guilty on Wednesday to shooting and robbing a Surbryanville businessman on February 6, 2021.
The convict, 31-year-old Ronlee Rampersaud, a watchman of 124 Sideline Dam, East Coast Demerara (ECD) reportedly spent a total of 19 months on remand for the crime but decided to plead guilty on Wednesday when he appeared before Magistrate Dylon Bess at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court.
Rampersaud pleaded guilty to four charges which included Robbery Under Arms, Illegal Possession of a Firearm, Discharging a Loaded Weapon with Intent and Causing Grievous Bodily Harm to his victim.
The Magistrate sentenced him five years in prison for robbery under arms, three years for grievous bodily harm and two years each for discharging a loaded firearm and illegal possession of a firearm.
Rampersaud’s sentences will run concurrently and the 19 months he spent on remand will also be deducted from the time he is required to serve.
Meanwhile one of his three alleged accomplices, Orvin Grant, a taxi driver of Lot 3 Melanie, Railway Embankment, ECD, who is out on bail but has failed to return to court, was sentenced in absentia.
He was sentenced the maximum of five years in prison for robbery under arms in the Magistrates’ Court.
The other two allegedly involved in the armed robbery, Jermaine Hassan, 35, of 207, Da Silva Street, Newtown and Russell Bowman, 38, of 8th Street, Cummings Lodge, ECD are also out on bail but will know their fate on March 26, 2024.
According to reports, the defendants arrived in front of the businesswoman’s home in a black wagon motorcar at around 16:20hrs on February 6, 2021, and proceeded to rob her in her yard.
One neighbour who reportedly witnessed the robbery told police that he heard the woman shouting “which bag, which bag” followed by two loud explosions suspected to be gunshots.
The neighbour said that he peeped over and saw one of the suspects running from the woman’s vehicle which was parked on the parapet in front of her house. The bandits then entered the backseat of the waiting wagon which sped off.
Kaieteur News later learnt that the bandit had shot the woman twice to her left leg. She had to be rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation for treatment.
Police later managed to nab four suspects they believed shot her and escaped in the getaway car.
Since their arrests, many had reached out to Kaieteur News calling them a gang that has been a menace to residents in the Kitty area. At least two of the suspects are no stranger to the law.
Rampersaud had been previously convicted of conspiring with another to commit armed robbery and had been cleared of that charge in 2015. The other suspect, Bowman a taxi driver, had been busted in 2019 with an illegal firearm and driving a car with a fake licence plate. Police were able to apprehend him after they noticed him trailing another car.
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