‘Stalker’ slapped with 10-year jail sentence for killing Sophia woman

Raymond O’Selmon, the miner who admitted to fatally stabbing a Sophia, Greater Georgetown woman, was on Thursday sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment by the High Court.

Fifty-three-year-old O’Selmon, formerly of North Ruimveldt, Georgetown was initially indicted for the capital offence of murder but opted to plead guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter.

On the day in question, February 27, 2019, Nadina Kalamadeen, 34, was walking along Second Street, North Sophia when O’Selmon approached her and attempted to hold her hand.

Nadina Kalamadeen

It was reported that the woman had been avoiding O’Selmon for some time as he reportedly wanted a relationship with her but the interest was not mutual.

When the woman pulled away her hand, O’Selmon, who had been imbibing that for most of that day, whipped out a knife and chopped her in the face before stabbing her six times.

Kalamadeen was a mother of five.

At the convict’s sentencing hearing on Thursday, his lawyer, Teriq Mohammed beseeched the court to temper justice with mercy, highlighting that his client elected to plead guilty at the earliest opportunity, thus, saving precious judicial time.

He said that O’Selmon and Kalamadeen were never in an intimate relationship.

When asked by the Judge if he had anything to say, O’Selmon, who appeared at the Demerara High Court via Zoom from the Mazaruni Prison, said, “Sorry for whatever took place between me and Nadina. I can’t remember what happen between me and her.”

State prosecutor Mikel Puran, in his address to the court, asked the Judge to impose a sentence that would serve as a deterrent to potential offenders.

On this note, Prosecutor Puran pointed to the prevalence of violence against women in Guyana while describing Kalamadeen’s death as an “unjustifiable loss of a life”.

Presiding Judge, Priya Sewnarine-Beharry in calculating an appropriate sentence for the confessed killer, among other things, considered his genuine expression of remorse and the psychological effects the woman’s death has had and continues to have on her family.

In 1990, a Judge sentenced O’Selmon to 15 years’ imprisonment for carnally knowing a 12-year-old girl; while in 2011, he was fined for discharging a loaded firearm.

In the end, the convict was imprisoned for 10 years. From this sentence, the Prison Director was ordered by the court to deduct the period O’Selmon spent on remand awaiting trial.

He was first arraigned for the woman’s murder on March 4, 2019, and was remanded to prison.