ALMOST four years after the murder of Courtney Porter, his 50-year-old Mahaica, East Coast Demerara neighbour was, on Thursday, sentenced to 56 years’ imprisonment, with the possibility of parole after serving 28 years for the crime. Foster Gravesande was convicted by a 12-member jury in December 2020 and on Thursday made an appearance before his trial Judge, Justice Navindra Singh, at the Georgetown High Court for sentencing.

He was convicted of the offence which read that on April 09, 2017, he allegedly murdered 49-year-old Porter. Gravesande was represented by Attorney Dexter Todd while the State was represented by prosecutor, Teriq Mohammed.
Gravesande during his sentencing hearing on Thursday, pleaded with the court for mercy and apologised to the victim’s family for his actions. He also expressed his willingness to offer financial support to Porter’s family.“Sir, I’m not a bad person. What you see here, this is just me. The only thing about me is that I love women… It is so unfortunate that I am facing a murder charge for my true friend, but his wife does not appreciate me.

I’m having sleepless nights because of this incident,” he told the court.
Prosecutor Mohammed explained that Gravesande and Porter are known to each other and labelled the case as “the senseless killing of one friend by another.”
Justice Singh said he found no mitigating factors because, in his view, Gravesande showed no remorse that the victim died due to his actions.
The Guyana Chronicle had reported that, on March 25, 2017, Porter was reportedly beaten to the head with a piece of wood by Gravesande who had accused him of pulling his wife’s clothes. Porter was hospitalised and succumbed to his injures on April 9, 2017.