Killing followed drunk and disorderly behaviour

DISTER Narine Kusranie will spend the next three years in jail for the March 2001 killing of McClean Benjamin, called ‘Buckman’ and ‘Shortman’.Before Justice Navindra Singh yesterday, he pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to the lesser count of manslaughter.

Justice Singh started at a base of eight years, from which he deducted five years for the time spent in prison.

State Prosecutor Orinthia Schmidt told the court that Kusranie was at a wedding and was heavily intoxicated while dancing with the daughter of the deceased. The father objected because of Kusranie’s behaviour, and Kusranie lashed Benjamin in the head.

The cause of Benjamin’s death was given as asphyxiation due to compression to the neck, compounded by multiple blunt traumas to the head.

In his address to the court yesterday on behalf of Kusranie, Defence Counsel Adrian Thompson said that the accused was in jail in 2009 for another matter, but prior to that, he had no other conviction and was remorseful.

He told the court that Kusranie was at a wedding house at Timehri, East Bank Demerara, and because he was heavily under the influence, he acted in a certain way.

Thompson asked the court to consider that Kusranie did not waste the court’s time in offering a guilty plea to the lesser count of manslaughter, since he wanted to bring closure to circumstances and had expressed remorse.

The lawyer also asked for a minimum sentence to be handed down.

State Prosecutor Michael Shahoud told the court that a life was lost, the incident was uncalled for, and asked that the accused equip himself with a life skill, to be gainfully employed upon his release from jail and to contribute to society in a meaningful way.

When Justice Singh asked Kusranie if he had anything to say, he answered in the affirmative, and told the court: “I am sorry for what I did, and I apologise to the family of the deceased, because I know what I did was wrong.”

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