–pleads guilty to manslaughter

DHARAMPAUL Gopaul, 53, spent his mother’s pension to purchase alcohol, which resulted in an altercation and the fatal stabbing of his drinking partner, Mukesh Nandkissore.

At the Berbice Assizes, Gopaul, known as Paulie Gulliver, who had initially pleaded not guilty to the capital offence, threw in the towel and pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter, which was accepted by the State.
However, sentencing has been postponed to November 19, when a report on the prisoner’s background will be presented by the Probation and Welfare Services.
State Prosecutrix Ms. Renita Singh, relaying the facts before Justice James Bovel Drakes and the mixed jury, stated that on February 6, 2009, at 10:00hrs Gopaul was at his home in company with two friends, Seenarine Mangar and Mukesh Nandkissore.
Mukesh was cooking, and Gopaul had sent Seenarine to the shop to buy rum. Later, Gopaul’s mother enquired from her son his reason for taking her pension money to by rum.
At about the same time, one Julia Griffith, 82, was walking towards her farmland aback Portuguese Quarters, when she saw three men in Gopaul’s yard. She heard quarrelling and stopped to hear the reason for the dispute.
Ms. Griffith heard Gopaul tell Nandkissore “What you want, I will give you,” and she heard him say this three times.
The third time, Gopaul picked up a cutlass, which was on the stairway and asked Nandkissore, “Tell me now what you want.” He then struck Nandkissore on the neck with the cutlass. Nandkissore fell to the ground, bleeding profusely from the neck.
On February 9, 2009, Dr Vivikakand Brijmohan performed a post-mortem and gave the cause of death as shock and haemorrhage, and an incised wound to the neck, which was so deep, it severed muscles and the jugular vein.

In an unsworn statement from the dock, Dharampaul Gopaul told the Judge that he was drinking on that fatal day. However, he could not recall the events of the day, as he was under the influence of alcohol.
“I can’t really remember what happen; sorry for what happen, Sir.”
Futhermore, Defence Counsel, Ms. Kim Kyte-John noted that the prosecution disclosed that her client was consuming alcohol bought from his mother’s pension money.
However, noting the totality of circumstances, the former Magistrate said her client never intended to kill or cause actual bodily harm.
“What was clear, was that he was no longer the master of his mind. Alcohol impaired his judgment, and his ability to judge,” she emphasised.

(By Jeune Vankeric)