– Jury, late yesterday, found him guilty of the murder of taxi driver Deonarine Sukhdeo
LATE  yesterday,  a Demerara Assize jury found Burt Lancaster  guilty of the murder  of  taxi driver,  Deonarine Sukhdeo on April 19, 2006. Justice Dawn Gregory sentenced him to death and ordered that he be hanged by the neck until he be dead.
Defence counsel Mr. Basil Williams indicated that  he was expecting what had happened and was already in the process of filing his appeal in the Kuru Kuru murder case.
On the other hand, leading prosecutor  Miss  Konyo Sandiford   said  the jury  returned a verdict in accordance with the  evidence.
Lancaster was one of four men committed to stand trial for the murder of  Taxi driver, Deonarine.
Two of them were freed before  they were indicted  and the  other accused,  Daywan Kawal who,  like  Lancaster, was indicted,  was offered a   plea agreement,  and was jailed for 7 years  after he  pleaded guilty  to   the lesser count  of manslaughter in another court.
Defence counsel Williams is saying that the accused who was sentenced to seven years imprisonment  had been made the  chief witness for the State in the matter in which he was the mastermind.

On 19th  April, 2006  the accused Burt Lancaster  left work  around midday with his co-worker  Daywan called ‘Avinash’.
They went to the Diamond Taxi stand and hired a taxi  to take them to  Soesdyke  to have  a drink with two friends.
During  the course of the journey, the driver Deonarine Sukhdeo stopped at a gas station  and while he was out of the car, the accused suggested  that they  rob  the driver, and Kawal subsequently agreed.
They then asked the driver  to take them up a trail in Kuru Kuru.   Once on the trail,  Daywan  Kawal  and the accused used a weapon  and inflicted injuries  on Deonarine Sukhdeo.   They then robbed him of his car and cell phone and left the injured Sukhdeo on the trail.
Sukhdeo died on that trail sometime  between the  19th and 26th  days  of April, 2006.  A post mortem examination was conducted on the decomposed body of Sukhdeo and the findings  revealed the cause of his death to be multiple stab wounds.
Describing the murder as a felony murder,  prosecutor Sandiford  told the jury that a  felony murder is where, for example, a robbery or felony is  committed, more than one person is involved  and during the course  of that robbery, someone is killed.

Under those circumstances, one or both of the persons  involved  in the robbery may be found guilty of a felony murder.