Man jailed for Cascade double murder

A Laventille man has been sentenced for the January 2007 double murder of Cascade couple Clyde and Denise Comissiong.

Aaron Noel Charles, of Upper St Barb’s Road, was recently sentenced by Justice Maria Wilson in the Port of Spain High Court. He pleaded guilty to felony murder.

The judge began with a starting point of 34 years’ hard labour and took two years off as he did not participate in the actual killings.

A full one-third discount was also deducted for his admission of guilt and the nine years 11 months he spent awaiting trial was also taken out, leaving Charles to serve a little over ten years’ hard labour.

According to the prosecution’s case, two men were involved in the brutal killings. One of them worked for the couple, and the two made and carried out a plan to rob the couple. Clyde Comissiong, 80, and his wife Denise, 79, were beaten to death with a crowbar at their Riverside Road home, on January 30, 2007.

An undisclosed sum of money and other valuables were taken from the house.

Their grandchildren, whom the Comissiongs were babysitting, were found by their mother creeping with blood on their hands.

Almost a year after the killings, in December, Charles was arrested in Grenada by Homicide detectives Sgt Brian Kennedy and acting Sgt Michael Veronique.

A second man is still being sought by investigators.

Senior prosecutor Anju Bhola represented the State while Amerelle Francis and Susan Kalipersad represented Charles.