THE 2019 murders of a father and daughter at Better Hope, East Coast Demerara (ECD) have resulted in the sentencing of Paul Chan and Troy Abrams.
Chan received 20 years on both counts without parole, and Abrams was sentenced to 25 years on both counts without parole. Both sentences will run concurrently.
The men, both in their 40s, had the custodial sentences imposed on them Friday by Judge Navindra Singh at the Demerara High Court. They had earlier pleaded guilty to the murders of 47-year-old moneychanger Aaron Latchman and his 18-year-old daughter, Arianna Latchman.

The tragic incident occurred on July 4, 2019, when Latchman and his daughter were accosted by armed robbers as they returned to their Better Hope home from Georgetown.
According to reports, the attackers demanded money and valuables from Aaron. A scuffle ensued when he resisted, resulting in several gunshots being fired. Both the father and his daughter were struck and collapsed as the assailants fled with their possessions.
Emergency services transported the injured father and daughter to a city hospital, where they were pronounced dead on arrival. An autopsy revealed that Aaron Latchman had sustained multiple gunshot wounds, while Arianna suffered a single fatal gunshot wound.

Opting to plead guilty rather than face trial, Chan and Abrams threw themselves at the mercy of the court. Their defence attorney Ronald Bostwick represented them during the proceedings.
The prosecution team included State Counsel Praneta Seeraj, Taneisha Saygon, Caressa Henry, and Christopher Belfield.  The concurrent sentences mean Chan and Abrams will serve their time simultaneously, without the possibility of parole. The Guyana Prison Service, was, however, ordered to deduct the time that the two convicts had been on remand awaiting trial.

In May of this year, another man, Lloyd Sadloo was found not guilty of murdering the father and daughter. Sadloo was exonerated after the trial Judge accepted his attorney Mark Waldron’s no-case submission. Following this, the judge gave the 12-person jury instructions to return a formal not-guilty verdict. In the past, Sadloo was also accused of armed robbery, breaking and entering, escaping from police custody, and unlawfully possessing a gun and ammunition.
In 2008, he was also accused of killing two miners from Brazil during a robbery. However, since there was not enough evidence to convict him, he was freed of those murders.

In 2016, Abrams was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment for a gunpoint robbery committed on moneychangers Rayburn Fraser and Osaffo Ward on America Street, Georgetown, on November 3, 2015. On the day in question, gunmen on motorbikes descended on Fraser and Ward and robbed them of over $2 million in local and foreign currency.

Sadloo, Abrams, Chan, Mark Rufino, and Sean Thomas were initially charged with the double murder at Better Hope. Reports state that in October 2020, Rufino, a 29-year-old labourer from Parika, East Bank Essequibo (EBE), escaped from the Lusignan Prison. He is yet to be recaptured. Thomas was discharged at the end of a preliminary inquiry (PI).