Father and daughter jailed for 4 ½ years each for fisherman’s killing

A man and his daughter were on Friday sentenced to four and a half years imprisonment each over the beating to death of a 22-year-old fisherman back in 2017.

Mandy Sukhdeo, 33, and her 55-year-old father, Surendra Sukhdeo, both of Ruby, East Bank Essequibo (EBE), Region Three, were arraigned last month at the Demerara High Court for the murder of Shereffudeen Nazamudeen called “Sheriff”.

Following a trial, however, a jury found them guilty of the lesser offence of manslaughter.

At Friday’s sentencing hearing, trial Judge Jo Ann Barlow after considering social reports on the two convicts, mitigating and aggravating factors and other factors, found that a sentence of four years, six months would be appropriate for each of them.

The judge also explained the rationale behind the sentence.

According to her, the maximum penalty for manslaughter is life in prison which has been determined to be between 25-30 years.

Given the circumstance of the case, the Judge said that there was no need to commence at the upper end of 30 years.

Instead, she commenced their sentence at 13 years from which she deducted three years for mitigating circumstances and another five years, six months for the time they spent in custody awaiting trial. As a result, the Sukhdeos will have to do four and a half years more in jail.

Both Surendra and his daughter had favourable character references. It was detailed that both of them have completed anger management training offered by the prison. Surendra is now serving as a peer educator and mentor in this training.

A psychologist who facilitates anger management training for prisoners described Mandy as outspoken, and a kind, caring and empathetic human.

He said he believes that she has the ability to gainfully serve society and can use her experience in the prison system to encourage errant members of society to stay away from crime.

At the time of this killing, Mandy had been a Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara) Alliance for Change (AFC) Councillor, and her father, a Good Hope/Hydronie Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) Councillor.

They were represented by Attorneys-at-Law Konyo Sandiford-Holder, Nigel Hughes and Kiswana Jefford while the prosecutors were State Counsel Latifah Elliot, State Counsel Marisa Edwards, and State Counsel Simran Gajraj.

The father and daughter killed the fisherman on February 14, 2017, at Ruby, East Bank Essequibo (EBE). It was previously reported that Nazamudeen of Lot 117 Ruby, EBE, was beaten to death after he allegedly attempted to snatch Mandy Sukhdeo’s handbag.

The fisherman, who sustained several injuries to his body after he was beaten with pieces of wood, died at the Leonora Cottage Hospital.

This was Mandy Sukhdeo’s and her father’s second trial for the young man’s killing; their first trial in 2021 ended in a hung jury after the 12 jurors could not arrive at a verdict.