MUNILALL Sarjoo called “Long Hair” has been sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Levan Chandarpaul, whose body was found in a shallow grave in August 2016. Justice Simone Morris-Ramlall ordered that the prisoner will not be eligible for parole until he would have served 25 years imprisonment.
Earlier in the month, following the unanimous verdict, at the Berbice Assizes, a teary-eyed Sarjoo maintained his innocence. He told the court that he came from the United States of America to improve his life but instead spent four years in jail. However, Justice Simone Ramlall- Morris reminded him of the guilty verdict.
State Prosecutrix, Tuanna Hardy, in her opening address, had submitted that Chandarpaul was last seen in the company of Sarjoo. Chandarpaul, formerly of Number 68 Village, Corentyne, Berbice was murdered between August 22 and 26, 2016.
Hardy had also told the court that the prosecution would prove that the accused killed Chandarpaul before bounding his hands and feet and burying him in a shallow grave.

In his evidence, Government Pathologist, Dr. Vivekanand Bridgemohan, noted that the man’s death was as a result of a fractured skull where there was also internal bleeding. There were two fractures to the skull, one of which was fragmented, the pathologist recounted in his testimony.
The injuries, he said, were consistent with someone being hit with a blunt instrument. He opined that the murder weapon was a piece of wood. Additionally, debris was found in the victim’s trachea, which confirmed that the injuries were inflicted prior to death.
Several witnesses testified during Zoom hearings, and were cross-examined by defence counsel, Rodwell Jugmohan. Among those who testified were the parents of the deceased, ranks of police’s Major Crime Unit and an eyewitness who saw the deceased entering Sarjoo’s motorcar and the body after it was exhumed from the Corentyne backlands. The man’s body was clad in the same clothes he was last seen wearing.