THE murder case against Ravindra “Ravin” Ramdeen is heading to its final stage, with the Cummings Lodge man scheduled to be sentenced on September 30 for the 2020 killing of Merlyn Singh, called ‘Jean’.
Ramdeen, 53, recently admitted to the charge before Justice Priscilla Chandra-Hanif at the Demerara High Court, bringing an end to the need for a trial on the murder indictment.
The prosecution’s case is that 54-year-old Singh and Ramdeen were acquainted and had been seeing each other.
The fatal incident occurred at Singh’s Cummings Lodge home between December 10 and 11, 2020.
The court heard that the two initially had consensual sex, during which Singh fell and struck her head. She lost consciousness but was assisted by Ramdeen and later regained consciousness.
The circumstances changed when Ramdeen subsequently sought to have sex with Singh again and she refused. The court heard that he then sexually assaulted her and choked her during the attack, causing her death.
Reports are that Singh’s lifeless body was found in her bedroom at Lot 415, Eighth Street, South-East Cummings Lodge.
A post-mortem examination later determined that she had died from asphyxiation caused by manual strangulation, compounded by blunt-force trauma to the head.
Before the matter reached the High Court, Ramdeen appeared at the Sparendaam Magistrate’s Court before Magistrate Alisha George. As the murder charge was indictable, he was not required to plead at that stage and was remanded to prison. He was subsequently committed to stand trial at the Demerara Criminal Assizes.
Ramdeen, a security guard and father of three, has now pleaded guilty to the charge, leaving sentencing as the outstanding stage of the proceedings.
Justice Chandra-Hanif is expected to sentence Ramdeen on September 30, with the court to consider the circumstances of the murder, the aggravating and mitigating factors, the guilty plea and any other relevant information placed before it, including reports on the offender and the impact of Singh’s death on her family.
