Life sentence for murderer

A man who brutally murdered a lab technician and robbed him while he was dying has been sentenced to life imprisonment and will not be eligible for parole for the next 20 years.

23 year old Osea Waqamailau was found guilty of murder of Prasad Amit Singh on 26th February 2009.

Lautoka High Court Judge Justice Priyantha Nawanao highlighted that on the day Waqamailau met the deceased at Austech Lab to get his blood tested for sexually transmitted diseases and upon noticing that the deceased was all alone, he left the lab having developed the idea of robbing the deceased.

Waqamailau returned a little later with a kitchen knife and the two got into a scuffle which resulted in Waqamailau getting injured in the right knee and also got his fingers of the right hand cut resulting in bleeding injuries.

However, he managed to overpower Singh and stabbed him four times in the chest and neck and as Singh tried to escape, Waqamailau punched him before hitting him with a footstool.

As Singh lay in a pool of blood, Waqamailau robbed him off $150 and two mobile phones and then made his way to the Lautoka hospital to get medical attention for his injuries.

Justice Nawana said Waqamailau took no trouble to see what had happened to the deceased, whose medical assistance he sought a little earlier in the day to allay his fears of your suffering from STD.

Instead, he left Singh to die.

Judge Nawana sentenced Waqamailau to life for murder and 14 years on the robbery charge.

Waqamailau is to serve a minimum 20 year term behind bars before he is to be considered for parole.


Story by: Roneel Lal