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Trial of
Guyanese on insurance murders to start soon |
May
7th 2007 Guyanese Richard James and Ronald Mallay
are to go on trial soon over two murders in New York and two
in Guyana which were driven by a plan to collect insurance
money.
According to the Associated Press (AP) the two men from the
same tight-knit Guyanese community in Queens are due to go
on trial Wednesday on federal murder charges. The trial
involves the deaths of four people, but investigators have
said the duo may have killed several more people in a scheme
to collect hundreds of thousands of dollars from life
insurance policies the victims never knew about.
If convicted, James, 46, and Mallay, 61, could face the
death penalty. |
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AP said that lead
defence attorney Kenneth Kaplin denied the allegations, and
claimed prosecutors built the case on the flimsy testimony
of shady coconspirators who were "given deals by the
government." James - a former insurance agent known for
hosting a cable television show featuring Guyanese music and
dance - and Mallay, an ex-postal worker, have been formally
accused in the poisoning and shooting deaths of four
victims, two in the United States and two in Guyana since
the 1990s.
According to AP, court papers allege US$300,000 was
collected from the death of Mallay's nephew in Guyana, after
he was plied with alcohol and ammonia. The 1993 shooting
death of Mallay's brother-in-law also was part of the
conspiracy, investigators said.
In the case of Basdeo Somaipersaud, MetLife paid out
US$84,000 in proceeds. Investigators, according to AP, say
most of the money was secretly channelled back to James.
MetLife discovered the scheme after noticing that 21 death
claims had been filed from policies written by James within
a few years. The rate "was approximately 318 percent higher
than expected (and) ... a large number of deaths were
violent or under unusual circumstances," court papers said.
MetLife fired James in July 2000 and notified authorities,
who put him under surveillance.
According to AP, in 2002, investigators caught him on
audiotape trying to pay an informant US $25,000 to kill
another victim with a cocktail of alcohol and drugs to
collect insurance, court papers said.
"The higher the dose, the better," he allegedly told the
informant.
AP said that before the plot could be carried out, agents
arrested James trying to flee to Guyana with a large amount
of cash. Both he and Mallay were ordered held without bail
after pleading innocent to federal murder conspiracy
charges.
Investigators say the murder-for-profit scheme mostly
victimized down-and-out alcoholics like Somaipersaud.
The second of 10 children and known as "Hilton," he was born
into poverty in Guyana, his sister, Jasmatie Seejattan, told
AP in an interview shortly after the arrests. In 1979, he
arrived in New York, where he worked odd jobs and sent money
to his wife and two children back home.
Somaipersaud's weakness was scotch. He would hide quart
bottles in his pocket, then take drinks whenever "he got
lonely," his sister said.
Somaipersaud apparently didn't know James or Mallay. But
authorities say James had covertly written an insurance
policy on his life with his sister as beneficiary.
Another witness, according to AP, later told investigators
that in 1998 he turned down US$5,000 from Mallay to kill a
"drunk" who hung out at Smokey Oval Park, court papers said.
A few days later, Somaipersaud was found dead there.
According to the New York Newsday two of the killings make
James and Mallay eligible for the federal death penalty
because they allegedly were murder-for-hire cases committed
as part of a racketeering enterprise.
The first death involved the shooting in June 1993 of Vernon
Peter, who was gunned down in what investigators believed at
the time was an execution. Peter was shot three times as he
walked along a street near Woodside Houses.
The second local death involved Somaipersaud.. Prosecutors
have said that James was the agent on at least two insurance
policies written on Somaipersaud's life and ended up
receiving $80,000 in proceeds in the scheme.
Two suspicious deaths in Guyana round out the case. One was
the 1999 death of Hardeo Sewnanan, 35, who died from
ingestion of alcohol and ammonia. The original federal
criminal complaint in the case alleged that James was the
agent and Mallay the beneficiary on at least two policies
written on Sewnanan's life.
Newsday said the other case is the January 1996 murder of
Alfred Gobin, who was killed in what appeared to be a
push-in robbery in Guyana. Gobin was the father of Mallay's
longtime girlfriend, according to court papers filed in New
York.
Newsday said that two people have already been convicted in
the case. Betty Peter, the widow of Vernon Peter and a
grandmother from Richmond Hill, as well as her son,
Baskinand Motillal, were found guilty after a jury trial in
February. Betty Peter, who is Mallay's sister, was convicted
of obstruction of justice and money laundering, while her
son was found guilty of racketeering and involvement in the
murder of Vernon Peter, his stepfather.
Betty Peter turned down a plea offer before trial that would
have given her little jail time. But now, faced with the
prospect of years in prison, she and her son have decided to
cooperate with the government and are slated to testify at
trial. (Starbroek News) |
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