By FRANCIS JOSEPH
A babysitter and a 13 year-old boy were brutally killed in Arima in 2017. The babysitter’s brother and two others were charged with murder. The brother pleaded guilty to the lesser count and ALL he got was 11 years in prison. Yes, 11 years for those brutal murders.
Solomon Baksh, 63, was sentenced by Madame Justice Sherene Murray-Bailey for the deaths of Haffiza “Rose” Mohammed, 57, and Videsh Subar, 13, on June 29, 2017 at Ajim Baksh Trace, Malabar, Arima. They were tied up and their throats slit.
Baksh and two other men accused of the murders were awaiting trial for almost nine years before he agreed to plead guilty under the felony murder rule. They were also charged with robbing Mohammed of several power tools, electronics and a vehicle, and robbing Subar of a $200 cell phone.
The Victim Impact Statement
Videsh’s parents Lennon and Veena Subar, gave a victim impact statement to the court. The couple said, “We ask the court to see the full human weight of this loss and understand that for us, this is a sentence of lifelong pain.”
In their statement, the Subars said they tried to have a child for over a decade before Videsh was born in December 2003. They added, “His birth brought a joy into our home that changed everything in the very best way. He was our answered prayer, our pride, our future, and the center of our world.
“He was the kind of child who brought energy into a room and left something of himself with everyone he met.”
They said said his Videsh’s life was stolen from him in a “brutal, senseless, and cruel way”.
They continued, “That day will never leave us. It was the day our world broke. It felt as though the ground beneath us moved and the earth itself shifted. The level of hurt, despair, and pain is indescribable. On most days, it is crippling.”
The parents said they have never recovered since his murder. “A part of us died with him that day. No parent is ever prepared for the murder of a child. There is no strength that makes that bearable.
“People speak of carrying on, but carrying on is not the same as healing. We have continued because we have had to, not because the wound has closed. We miss his laughter. We miss his mischievous antics. We miss his smile. We miss his presence.
“There is a pain in knowing that we will never hold him again, never see his face again, never hear his voice again in this life.”
They claimed that Solomon Baksh being sentenced would do little to ease their pain. “There is no real justice for parents who have lost a child this way, because no outcome can return him to us.
“Nothing can erase the knowledge that his future was stolen. Nothing can undo the years of suffering, the sleepless nights, the tears, the emptiness, or the lasting damage to our heart.”
