Teen girl's killer for sentence next week

JUSTICE Gillian Lucky will sentence Nicholas Rampersad, now 24, next Wednesday for the 2009 stabbing death of Nabisha Crystal Bedaysee, 17, in Marabella.

She asked attorneys Rekha Ramjit, who defended him, and senior state attorney Trevor Jones to examine the Children Act and the Chuck Attin case.

Rampersad was 14 when he stabbed Bedaysee 16 times with a knife at his home where he lived with his mother, Sookrani "Maureen" Rampersad. The incident happened on June 27, at Montique Street.

Rampersad elected to be tried by a judge alone and not a jury. Two weeks ago Lucky delivered a written judgment and found him guilty.

The State's case was based on a dying declaration by Bedaysee. Lying in the road, she was asked if "Nick" was the one who stabbed her. She nodded.

The death penalty cannot be imposed on Rampersad because he was 14 at the time.

Next week Ramjit will deliver a plea in mitigation, after which Jones will reply.

Rampersad has already spent ten years in jail awaiting trial.

The Children Act says the death sentence may not be pronounced on someone convicted of an offence if he/she was under 18 at the time. It recommends that the judge should sentence the person at the State's pleasure and to a lawful place of custody, to be determined by the Minister of National Security.

In 1994, Attin, who was 16, and Noel Seepersad, 28, brutally raped and murdered two women in Westmoorings. Seepersad was sentenced to death, which was commuted to life imprisonment.

The Court of Appeal, considering the sentence on Attin, ruled that he should be sentenced at the court's pleasure, and, that in future, the court must give an indication of an appropriate length of sentence. Attin was given 25 years, and a judge is to review his sentence periodically.