Plan to kill husband with poisoned goat stew

WHEN a meal of poisoned stewed goat and rice failed to kill him, Anil Jadoo’s best friend beat him with a piece of wood on the head.

Geewan Pardassie killed Jadoo for $800 in 2006. He had been paid by Jadoo’s common-law wife, Kareen Ramlal.

At first, Ramlal and her mother Ramdaye planned to kill Jadoo by feeding him the meal, which the mother laced with the deadly insecticide Lanate, also known as malathion.

Ramlal discussed killing Jadoo, the father of her then six-year-old daughter, with Pardassie numerous times because he was abusive to her.

Although he “kept ducking them,” it was agreed between the three that if Jadoo did not eat the poisoned meal, then Pardassie would have to kill him.

Pardassie and the mother and daughter are before Justice Hayden St Clair-Douglas charged with killing Jadoo at his home at Deokiesingh Street, St Augustine, on May 3, 2006. They all pleaded guilty to felony murder last month and appeared virtually from the Golden Grove Prison and the women’s prison.

Jadoo’s body was found by a relative. He died from blunt force trauma to the skull and brain, autopsy reports said.

At Thursday’s virtual hearing, prosecutors Indira Chinebas and Ambay Ramkelawan read out the facts of the case.

Ramkelawan said Ramlal planned to go with Jadoo to the Kay Donna drive-in cinema on May 2, but she wanted her husband dead that night. She said her mother would prepare the pot of goat and would put in the Lanate while she was cooking. It was agreed that if Jadoo did not eat it, then Pardassie would have to kill him.

After returning from the cinema, the friends began drinking. Jadoo began eating the meal prepared for him, but told Pardassie he did not like how the food tasted, and went to bed.

As he slept, Pardassie took a piece of wood from the gallery, hit Jadoo three times on the head and then told the women what he had done.

When arrested, he took the police to Jadoo’s home and showed them the piece of wood and the poisoned food.

The meal was taken to the Forensic Science Centre and tested positive for malathion.

Ramlal told police Jadoo threatened her and slapped her, and,fed up with the problems in the relationship, she decided to poison him.

She claimed Pardassie had asked for $800.

Pardassie’s attorney Selwyn Mohammed said his client was “constantly harassed” by the others to do the killing and tried “ducking them.”

Mohammed said Pardassie’s conscience was bothering him and sometime after the killing, he called Jadoo’s mother to apologise to her. He had also always wanted to plead guilty and wrote to the Director of Public Prosecutions in 2013 asking for the opportunity to do so.

Mohammed also said Pardassie had a hard life after leaving home at primary-school level because of abuse by his mother and associating with “undesirables.” He has since lost all contact with his family, save for a brother who visited him in prison over the last 14 years. This brother was killed last year and no one else has visited him.

He is not in good health. He has been taking remedial reading classes with ALTA at prison, Mohammed said, and was made an orderly because of his clean prison record.

Because of the constraints of virtual hearings from the prison, the judge was unable to take the mitigation pleas for the Ramlals and will do so on February 10.

Also representing the three are attorneys Ulric Skerritt, Colin Selvon, Ravi Rajah, and Michelle Gonzalez.