THE Guyana Court of Appeal, on Thursday, threw out the appeal of manslaughter convict, Travis McDougal, and upheld his 25-year jail sentence for killing a miner during an armed robbery in 2014.

In 2017, McDougal was tried before Justice Navindra Singh and left to the mercy of his peers for his role in the murder of Ashok Kumar Raghoo.

In the verdict, however, the jury found McDougal guilty of the lesser count of manslaughter which saw him sentenced to 25 years in jail for the lesser offence.

McDougal later moved to the Court of Appeal claiming that his sentence was excessive and urged that it should be set aside because of unfairness and severity.

The appeal was heard by a tribunal of appellate judges including Acting Chancellor of the Judiciary, Yonette Cummings-Edwards, and Justices Dawn Gregory and Rishi Persaud.

McDougal was represented by attorneys-at-law Nigel Hughes and Narissa Leander. Appearing for the state was Senior State Counsel, Natasha Backer.

While delivering the ruling, the acting Chancellor rejected arguments made on behalf of the appellant and said the court did not find that the trial judge erred in his sentencing. As such, the appeal was dismissed.

“We reiterate that each case will turn on its own particular facts… sentence is a matter for the trial judge, who would have seen and heard witnesses including the accused person.

“An appellate court must not, because it feels that the different sentence should be passed, thereby impose a different one. We are far removed from the case and cannot substitute our view for that of the trial judge,” Cummings-Edwards said as she affirmed McDougal’s sentence.

McDougal was convicted of shooting the Kitty businessman and injuring his wife, Shyrazadi, at around 13:30 hours at the corner of Regent Street and Vlissengen Road, Georgetown.

The court had heard that the convicted man’s accomplice grabbed a haversack containing $4 million which the deceased man’s wife held on to. She was shot in the thigh.

Raghoo was later pronounced dead at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).

In July 2015, Travis McDougal was committed to stand trial for murder along with pork-knocker, Jermaine Otto.

Otto was among the inmates that perished in the deadly Camp Street prison fire which razed the historic facility in March 2016.

Government Pathologist, Dr Nehaul Singh had testified that Raghoo died of a perforated lung due to a gunshot.