–as 78-year sentence literally pushes him over the edge

JUSTICE Navindra Singh has sentenced wife killer Kevin Verwayne to 78 years’ imprisonment after an Assize jury found him guilty of murdering his 20-year-old reputed wife, Suzy.
In an apparent suicide bid, the 25-year-old labourer of Pouderoyen, West Bank, Demerara attempted to leap from the court’s gallery to the ground 40 feet below, but his attempt was foiled by Police Sgt. Kenneth Wishart, who snatched him by the feet and, with the help of others, brought him back to safety.
Sgt. Wishart was among the police and prison officers who were taking the prisoner to the lockups from where he would be taken to a lawful prison to begin serving his 78 years’ imprisonment.

Sgt Wishart told the Chronicle, “If I did not snatch him in time, I am sure he would have been a dead man.”

One day in March 2011, Kevin, who normally used to threaten his lover that he would take her life for being unfaithful to him, hired a taxi and took her to a canal at Houston, EBD.

The confession statement he gave to the police and his friends and relatives detailed that, on their way, he reminded her of her deeds, then he hugged her by the neck and jumped into the canal with her, where he kept squeezing her neck and holding her beneath the water until she became lifeless.

Thereafter, he placed some trash over her body, and left for home, where he told his relatives what had happened.

His cousin named ‘Blacks’, to whom he had told the story, took him to the police, and he gave them a statement.

At his trial, which lasted about two weeks, seven witnesses gave evidence. Kevin was represented by Attorney-at-law Mr. Melvyn Duke.
After his conviction yesterday, Mr. Duke asked the judge for clemency and leniency.

Before imposing sentence, the judge also enquired from leading Prosecuting counsel, Mrs. Judith Mursalin, whether she had anything to say. She said investigations revealed that the accused had killed his reputed wife in a deliberate, unprovoked and unjustified act, and she lamented the frequency with which violence is being perpetrated on women in the country, and she declared that strong action must be taken to deter same.

Before imposing penalty, the judge said he does not impose the death penalty, but in sentencing for murder, he begins with 60 years, and would add or subtract as the situation warrants.

In this particular case, he said, because the act was premeditated, he would add 10 years to the 60.
For cruelty, he would add five years; and because domestic violence ranks as a licence of frequency, he would add an additional six years to the sentence.

The accused had been incarcerated for three years, therefore he would deduct the three years from the total sentence.

Noting that the accused had proffered no mitigating circumstance, the judge sentenced the accused to 78 years’ imprisonment.

(By George Barclay)