Justice Navindra Singh this morning sentenced Foster Gravesande to 56 years in prison after being convicted of murdering his neighbor back in 2017.
The 50-year-old Mahaica, East Coast Demerara (ECD) man was convicted by a 12-member jury back in December and was due to be sentenced after the court received a probation report.
Justice Singh said Gravesande would be eligible for parole after spending 28 years of his sentence.
Following his arrest before Justice Singh, Gravesande pleaded not guilty to the charge and cited the murder of 49-year-old Courtney Porter on April 9, 2017.
When the case began in December at Demerara High Court, State Prosecutor Teriq Mohammed called four witnesses: Government Pathologist Dr Nehaul Singh and three Police ranks.
Dr Singh gave Porter the cause of death as a brain haemorrhage due to blunt force trauma.
Porter, a father of three, was reportedly beaten in the head with a piece of wood by Gravesande who had accused him of stripping his wife’s clothes. Following the incident, Porter was hospitalized and his attacker was charged with attempted murder and released on bail.
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Murdered: Courtney PorterHowever, Porter surrendered two weeks after the beating and as a result, Gravesande subsequently fled the area and was captured in another police department.
The charge against him was upgraded to murder. After a Preliminary Investigation (DP), in the Magistrates Court, he was committed to stand trial for the capital offense.