“Big Foot” appeals 33-year jail sentence for killing South Rd. hotelier

Twenty-eight-year-old Bryan Leitch called “Big Foot”, the man who was convicted in 2018 for the unlawful killing of a hotel owner and sentenced to 33 years’ imprisonment, has filed an appeal against his conviction and sentence, according to information from the Court of Appeal.

Although he was indicted by State prosecutors for the capital offence of murder, a mixed 12-member jury on April 17, 2018, found him guilty of the lesser count of manslaughter. They found him guilty of unlawfully killing Joseph Jagdeo between November 13 and 14, 2018

The jail sentence was imposed by High Court Judge Sandil Kissoon.

Jagdeo, 62, was the proprietor of the South-Central Hotel, located at Lot 208 South Road, Georgetown. Lawyers for the appellant, Leitch, and the State prosecutor will present arguments in the appeal which is scheduled for hearing on April 12, at 09:30 am.

According to reports, Jagdeo’s bound and gagged body was found under a bed in one of the rooms of his hotel. It was reported that Leitch became angry when Joseph demanded that he vacate the room he, Leitch was occupying at the South Road hotel.

So, he tied the hotel owner’s hands and stuffed a piece of cloth in his mouth before pushing him under a bed in a room. He then threw away the keys to the room’s door. The cause of death of the businessman, who was discovered dead by one of his handymen, was given as haemorrhage due to blunt trauma to the head, compounded by suffocation and compression to the neck.

His neck and spine were also broken. Meanwhile, during Leitch’s trial at the Demerara High Court, a Policeman had testified that Leitch told him that he did not intend to kill Jagdeo. According to the witness, the now-convicted man had stated, “Me ain’t guh fuh kill he. I sorry fuh wah happen.”