Woman who hired three men to kill husband freed after 28 years

A WOMAN who hired three men to brutally kill her estranged husband in 1994 has been released by a High Court judge.

On Wednesday, Parbattee Sandra Dass, 64, was resentenced by Justice Gail Gonzales.

Dass was one of two dozen death-row inmates selected by Justices Ricky Rahim and Geoffrey Henderson as their sentences were commuted to life. They are entitled to be resentenced in keeping with a recent Privy Council ruling on commuted life sentences for murder convicts, in the case of Naresh Boodram.

Gonzales started with a sentence of 30 years for Dass, saying it must serve as a “disincentive” to people who hire others to kill.

She also considered the murder was committed with “clear and definite intent,” and others had been hired to commit the act.

Gonzales also pointed out that Dass has not accepted responsibility for her actions, claiming she was wrongly charged.

The judge said she could apply no reduction in the starting point for the lack of remorse, but considered the efforts Dass had made while on remand and after her death sentence was commuted to life, deducting two years. She also said while any remission of the sentence would be for the prison to calculate, Dass has served the majority of her sentence, having spent 28 years incarcerated.

Dass and the three men she hired to kill her husband, Rajpaul Dass, were convicted of his murder on February 2, 1999.

The three men were also found guilty of killing a woman living with Rajpaul Dass at Connector Road, Carlsen Field, his former marital home.

Parbatee Dass lived obliquely opposite to him and though they were still married, they had separated.

According to the Appeal Court judgment in 2000, the couple’s relationship had deteriorated to the extent there were matters pending in the Chaguanas Magistrates’ Court for maintenance and domestic violence.

At the High Court trial, the State’s case turned on the testimony of one of the men Dass hired to kill her husband.

She had complained to him about domestic problems she was having with her estranged husband, saying he was giving her a “rough time.” She asked him to get someone to give him a severe “cut---e, break some bones” or possibly “get rid of him.”

The four met in February 1994, and she told the three men what she wanted done. They met twice more in March.

Dass was killed on April 30, 1994. At the trial, they were all convicted of his murder.

Two others were convicted of killing Dass's female companion. One of the men was discharged of the woman's murder on a no-case submission.

The Appeal Court described the killings as “particularly brutal.” Dass had 15 injuries which cut through his skull, shoulderblade, back, right arm bone, forearm, thigh and chest, lacerating the liver.

In pathologist Dr Ramnath Chandulal's opinion, the wounds were caused by a sharp, heavy cutting instrument.

At the appeal, the court said of Parbatee Dass’s involvement in her husband’s murder: “This was a cleverly and meticulously planned killing, where she employed three men, to use force against the deceased.”

The State was represented by attorneys Rhea Libert, Josiah Soo Hon, and Ananda Gobin. Peter Carter and Jonelle Chang represented Dass.

In submissions to the court, Carter and Chang urged the judge to order Dass’s release, as she had shown significant rehabilitative progress in her close to three decades of incarceration in prison.

They admitted while she claimed to have been motivated by years of abuse, she should have waited for reprieve in the domestic-violence matters pending in the magistrates’ court.