34 year old Labasa resident, Kositino Latianara has been sentenced to life imprisonment after he was found guilty of murdering Amitendra Kumar on 18th March 2024.
While sentencing Latianara, High Court Judge Justice Lee Burney said Latianara stabbed Kumar multiple times and slit his throat with a knife.
The judge says Latianara was motivated by a grievance that the deceased taxi driver had cheated him out of payment for a bucket of marijuana that Latianara had supplied to him some weeks earlier.
Justice Burney said when Latianara was interviewed by the police, he made a full confession to having murdered the deceased.
The post-mortem report states that the conditions directly leading to death were complete transections of internal jugular veins, penetrating neck injuries and sharp force trauma.
He highlighted that the statutory penalty for murder is a mandatory sentence of imprisonment for life.
Justice Burney also said that the prosecution highlighted that the murder involved a significant degree of planning, the deceased was providing a valuable public service as a taxi driver, and Latianara used excessive violence by stabbing the deceased several times and slitting his throat.
It was also highlighted that Latianara threw away the knife in an attempt to conceal the murder weapon.
Justice Burney said in his judgement, the seriousness of the murder of Kumar is high within the guideline judgment.
He said the appropriate starting point for him is a minimum term of 20 years.
He added the aggravating factors identified by the prosecution warrant an upward adjustment to 22 years imprisonment.
The judge said Latianara has no effective mitigation.
Justice Burney sentenced Latianara to life imprisonment, and fixed 20 years as the minimum term he must serve before pardon may be considered.
Latianara has 30 days to appeal the case.
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