A 31-year-old man convicted of slitting the throat of a taxi-driver during a bungled robbery in 2001 was sentenced yesterday to 29 years in prison. In passing the sentence on Ramzan Bachan, Justice Prakash Moosai, presiding in the Port-of-Spain First Criminal Court, described his crime as "unnecessary and senseless." Bachan, however, would only serve 19 years of his sentence, after Moosai agreed to discount the ten years he spent in remand while awaiting trial. On August 6, Bachan, of Guppy Hill Trace, Union Village, Mayaro, was spared the death penalty by a jury who found him not guilty of murder but guilty of the lesser count of manslaughter. After sentence was passed, Bachan turned to his relatives who were seated in court and blew a kiss before being led away by several police officers.
He was on retrial for the murder of Chaguanas taxi driver Elwyn Sampson. It was the prosecution's case during his three-month trial that on November 21, 2001, Bachan and two men posing as passengers hijacked Sampson's vehicle at the Chaguanas/Port-of-Spain taxi stand. While driving, Sampson began to struggle with his attackers who were forced to stop the vehicle. Sampson was said to have grappled with Bachan's accomplices for the knife before Bachan intervened and managed to overpower him. Bachan then slit Sampson's throat from one side of his neck to the other cutting through his windpipe. His body was dumped in a bushy area on the Uriah Bulter Highway near Grand Bazaar. Dianne John, a passenger in Sampson's vehicle at the time of the incident, was threatened by the trio but was later released unharmed. She testified during Bachan's trial.
Moosai said: "This was a cold, callous and monstrous act." He scolded Bachan for preying on Sampson, who he described as a poor and helpless taxi driver who was trying to earn a honest living. Bachan was initially convicted of Sampson's murder in February 2006 and was read the mandatory death penalty. A year later, his conviction was overturned by three judges of the Court of Appeal who ordered a retrial. Daniel Goolcharan, one of Bachan's accomplices, was sentenced to a five-year prison term for his involvement in Sampson's murder. Another man, Joshua Ramnath, was granted immunity by the office of the Director of Public Prosecution in exchange for his testimony against Bachan. In his defence Bachan admitted to being part of a plan to rob Sampson of his vehicle but denied being involved in his murder. Bachan was represented by Joseph Pantor while Mauriceia Joseph and Danielle Thompson prosecuted.
