27 years in jail

1. JASON Jude Arjoon has been in custody awaiting trial for manslaughter, kidnapping, rape, robbery and larceny since he was arrested on July 5, 2005.

Yesterday, a High Court judge in San Fernando told the 36-year-old man he would spend the next 27 years in prison with hard labour. The judge said because of the callous nature of the crimes and Arjoon’s lack of remorse, he felt justified in not deducting the time Arjoon spent in jail awaiting trial, from the overall sentence.

Three women fell victim to Arjoon, who pretended to be a PH taxi driver. On April 28, 2015 he was driving on the M2 Ring Road in south Trinidad when other drivers saw a woman fall out from the back door of his car. Arjoon drove off. The woman, Mary Baldeo Waheed, died at San Fernando General Hospital the day after. An autopsy concluded she died of massive blunt force trauma. Arjoon told police he stole a car and saw Waheed on the road. He sounded his horn, she signalled him to stop and asked to be taken to Library Corner in San Fernando.

He told Waheed he first had to go off-route to pick up his daughter. She become concerned when Arjoon just kept driving and asked how much further he had to go. When he turned onto the M2 Ring Road, Waheed jumped out of the speeding car. On the same day, he picked up another woman at Harris Promenade in San Fernando, drove to a lonely area and raped her after threatening to kill her. On May 24, 2005, he picked up a woman in Marabella who said she wanted to be taken to San Fernando. Arjoon told her he was going via the bypass because there had been an accident on the highway. He also told her he was going off-route to pick up his daughter.

The woman tried to open the door but it was locked. Arjoon robbed her of her cellphone, wallet and $1,000. He later stripped her naked and put her in the trunk. The woman managed to open the trunk, jumped from the car and was assisted by a passer-by. Arjoon pleaded guilty on May 9 and St-Clair Douglas adjourned the matter to consider whether or not to impose consecutive or concurrent jail terms for the six charges.

A consecutive sentence means Arjoon must serve the entire sentence handed down per charge, while a concurrent sentence means he will only serve the highest sentence on any one of the charges.

In the end, Arjoon was slapped with 27 years in prison with hard labour. Representing the State was Trevor Jones, while Arjoon was represented by Ramesh Deena.