A SITTING of the Guyana Court of Appeal on Monday varied the sentence of appellant Jaiente Lall, called Sunil, who had been found guilty of the murder of Davenand Sookdeo, called Damon, and had been sentenced to death by hanging by the learned trial judge.

The Court of Appeal in agreement with counsel for the appellant, Mark Conway, varied the sentence, and sentenced the appellant to 20 years imprisonment, minus time served awaiting his appeal.

Sitting at the Court of Appeal yesterday were the Chancellor, Justice Yonette Cummings-Edwards, Chief Justice Roxane George-Wiltshire and Justice Rishi Persaud.

Lall was charged with the offence of murder and the particulars of the offence stated that on September 5, 2007, in the County of Essequibo, he murdered Sookdeo.

Jaiente Lall is the older brother of Davenand Sookdeo, and on the day in question, according to the evidence via the prosecution witnesses and the caution statement of the accused, he and three others at about 08:00hrs started to drink three litres of bush rum and sent for another bottle.

In the afternoon, at about 16:00hrs, a fight ensued between the accused and his brother, and the accused stabbed his unarmed brother with a knife.

On July 8, 2011, the jury found the accused guilty of murder and the learned trial judge sentenced the appellant to death by hanging.

However, on Monday, attorney-at-law Conway, at the Court of Appeal, contended that the issue of intoxication and or drunkenness arose upon the evidence, and therefore the learned trial judge’s omission to give the jury a direction upon the law as it relates to intoxication had caused the jury to return a perverse verdict, as they may have returned a verdict of manslaughter had they been directed to consider if the accused may or might have been drunk.

Counsel for the State, Ms. Sonia Joseph argued, however, that the direction by the learned trial judge was not flawed in law.