Murder accused Doobay gets 17 years for manslaughter
MURDER accused  Ramnauth Doobay called ‘Rahul’ or ‘Vishal’ who inflicted 17 wounds (9 of them incised wounds) on friend, Mark Anthony Gill, in July 2005 and then said in a statement that the latter wanted to begin a sexual relationship with him, confessed to the crime and entered into a plea bargaining agreement with the State to offset penalty. After expressing sorrow to the parents of the victim and assuring the Court that if the offence was reduced to manslaughter,  he was  prepared to serve between 15 and 20 years imprisonment in jail for that offence,  Justice Roxanne  George  imposed 17 years imprisonment,  telling him that the sentence represented the 17  stab wounds he inflicted on the victim.
The judge also told him to use  the time in prison to reflect on the pain and suffering he had caused to the deceased and his family.
The parents of the deceased  – Mr. and Mrs.  Gill, who were spectators and were consulted about the plea bargaining agreement- wept bitterly during the proceedings.  
In keeping with the amended Act, the Director of Public Prosecutions had authorized  that the offence of murder could be reduced to manslaughter  provided certain requirements under the law are met. 
Justice Roxanne George entertained the application when the well-dressed 30-year-old accused pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to manslaughter.
Special prosecutor Mr. Nigel Hughes, with Lawyer Zamilla Ally from the DPP’s Chambers, appeared for the prosecution while former High Court Judge, Mr. Jainarayan Singh represented the accused Doobay.
According  to Mr. Hughes, the accused had committed the offence  between the 7th and 8th of July, 2005.
In  a plea for mitigation, Mr. Singh said that, born 26th November 1980, the accused is now 30 years 5 months old and hails from a deeply religious and respected family on the West Coast of Demerara.
His great grandfather, Pandit S. S. Doobay, was responsible for the building of the first  Hindu Temple in Goed Fortuin on the West Bank of Demerara.
His great grandfather  is presently  the presiding Pandit of a Hindu Temple  in Toronto, Canada. And his father, Krishna Doobay, is currently a practising pandit  who resides at Best Village, West Coast Demerara.
His mother, Indira, is the daughter of ‘Sunny Pandit’ – one of the most respected pandits from Enmore, East Coast Demerara.
Doobay seemed determined to follow the religious lineage of the males in his family  but his love of  graphic designing  led him in a different direction.  At 17 years of age,  he gained employment with a company in Georgetown, Universal Graphic  Designing,  and rose to a senior position in that company in charge of the designing  of advertisements, business cards and  posters within three years.
The Company paid for a course in Technical Graphic Designing at the Micro Graphic  Technology Institute for 18 months  where he studied, inter alia, the usage of computers,  printers,  photocopying and fax machines.
He also attended the Cyril Potter College of Education where he completed, successfully, a course in office management and control and care of office equipment.
In July 2005, he was the Asstistant Manager of Cell Com & Stationery Centre on Camp Street, Georgetown.    He is the father of two children, a boy 11 years old – who recently migrated to the United States, and  a  nine-year-old girl who lives in the U.S. with her mother.
According  to lawyer, Jainarayan Singh, the accused met the deceased in the course of his business in 2003.  A friendship arose  between them as they both lived in  close proximity on the West Demerara.
In March 2005, the deceased Mark Gill – who was a very prominent businessman and proprietor of Gill’s Fashions in downtown Georgetown,  after they had been drinking  together,  propositioned the accused about starting a sexual relationship with him. 
The accused refused the proposition and stopped talking to the deceased.   They met again in June 2005, when the deceased told the accused he was only joking and had had too much to drink. The accused accepted this excuse and their relationship restarted, Mr. Jainarayan Singh said.