RABINDRA Seemangal, one of the six people charged following the daring robbery at businessman Malcolm Panday’s Bel Air residence last year, pleaded guilty to all the charges against him yesterday and was sentenced to eight years imprisonment.

The 20-year-old prisoner, of Lot 100 Sheriff Street, also in Georgetown, changed his plea to guilty on more than one occasion when the trial was in progress but had reverted to not guilty.
However, yesterday, when the case was called, again, before Acting Chief Magistrate Priya Sewnarine-Beharry, Seemangal, who had been in prison because he could not post $600,000 bail, stood up in the dock and made a final change.
One robbery under arms offence said the convict, on July 12, 2011, being armed with a gun, robbed Anne Ramsood of $7.4M property of Malcolm Panday. Another said, the same day, he robbed Ramsood of a BlackBerry curve cell phone valued $47,000 and $380,000.
A third charge said he had possession of eight rounds of 9 mm ammunition and an unlicensed 9mm pistol.
Seemangal told the court he does not intend to waste time anymore because his wife and children are suffering. He said he is guilty and is prepared to face the consequences of his actions.
Senior Counsel Bernard De Santos, prosecuting for the State, advised the court not to accept the man’s guilty plea if he does not fully confess to the crimes.

Young babies
Seemangal said he is guilty of whatever he is facing; adding that he has two young babies to look after and has no job. He added that he was with the wrong friends at the wrong time and that he is very sorry for what he did but was being influenced by friends.
He further asked that the court be reasonable when sentencing.
Before penalty was pronounced, De Santos reminded the magistrate that the prisoner had informed that he will be testifying on behalf of the prosecution.
However, Seemangal said he would no longer be a prosecution witness.
The magistrate took into consideration that the defendant did not have any previous convictions, had already been in jail for 14 months and the guilty plea saved the court’s time.
The aggravating factors were the prevalence and seriousness of the matter, the defendant having invaded the virtual complainant’s home with a loaded firearm and threatened the family, including the lives of young children, the amount of money that was stolen and given Seemangal’s age, he should have known the consequence of his actions.
The magistrate also considered that Seemangal recanted on testifying for the prosecution, that he seems not to be remorseful and that he had scotch-taped the family, who included two young children, aged three and five years.
When the magistrate asked Seemangal if he had given orders to shoot the children if they made any noise at the time of the robbery, he responded in the affirmative.
He was sentenced to four years imprisonment on the robbery under arms conviction and on the charge for the firearm, he was fined $100,000 together with four years imprisonment. The magistrate said, given the circumstances of this particular case, the sentences will run consecutively.

Will continue
The trial for the other defendants will continue today, involving Panday’s mother-in-law, Chandrada Rampersaud and Hardat Kumar, 23 (no addresses given); Jermaine Mitchell, 20, of Lot ‘YY’ 15 North East La Penitence; Aubrey Simon, 21, of Lot 1414 Princes Street and Rayon Jones, of Lot 2 Hardina Street, Wortmanville, also in Georgetown, all of whom are on $1M bail.
They, too, are charged with the July 12, 2011 armed robbery of $7.4 M committed on Ramsood.
Another charge said Mitchell, Simon and Jones robbed Ramsood of one Blackberry curve cell phone valued at $47,000 and $380,000.
Three more separate charges against Simon said, that July 12, he had in his possession eight rounds of 9mm ammunition and an unlicensed 9mm pistol and fraudulently used identification mark, PKK 3700, on a motorcar.