FOLLOWING his guilty plea to the lesser count of manslaughter, Leron LaRose was given a 15-year sentence by Justice Sandil Kissoon for the senseless killing of his drinking partner Sean Ricardo Pestano, who died of a severed femoral artery.

The sentence was imposed after the prisoner denied the capital charge of murder for which he was initially indicted, and confessed to the lesser offence at the Berbice Assizes.

Narrating the facts, State Prosecutrix Ms Tuanna Hardy said that at the time of the killing, on March 22, 2015, Pestano, who had been recently released from the New Amsterdam Prison after serving a three-year sentence for drug trafficking, was drinking with LaRose at Third Street, Rose Hall Town, Corentyne, when a heated argument ensued.

The quarrel reportedly stemmed from a derogatory remark the deceased had made about LaRose’s mother.

During the scuffle, Pestano somehow managed to put LaRose in a vice, so the latter, on seeing a pair of scissors at handreach, picked it up and began sharpening it.

Pestano took it away, and LaRose, seizing the opportunity, jumped the premises at the western fence and ran away. But about half an hour later, he reportedly returned armed with a cutlass, and proceeded to chop Pestano to the left leg.

The injuries were said to be so severe that parts of his knee-cap were disjointed.
The 50-year-old was subsequently picked up by bystanders and rushed to the Port Mourant Hospital, but was pronounced dead on arrival.

While incarcerated, Pestano was regarded as a model prisoner, and was even awarded a certificate of appreciation by the now defunct Berbice Regional Health Authority.