Kasoa juvenile killer prays for forgiveness

“It was not my intention to kill my dear friend and to also end his life this way. 

“I pray the court would forgive all my sins and give me a second chance.”

These were the plea of the 15-year-old juvenile found guilty of conspiring with a teenager to murder a 10-year-old boy in Kasoa for a money ritual before the Juvenile Court in Accra sentenced him to 12 months in prison. 

He will serve his jail term at the Senior Correctional Centre.

Before the presiding judge slapped him with the jail term, the convict was asked whether he had anything to say.

The convict, who looked remorseful and in tears, pleaded with the court to forgive him.

He further pleaded with the deceased’s father for forgiveness.

“I have played with Ishmael (deceased) for a long time.

I never planned to kill him. It was the devil,” he added.

The presiding judge, Bernice Mensimah Ackon, explained that the juvenile convict was arrested in April 2021 and will be 19 this year.

She added that the 15-year-old had been on remand for three years and two months.

According to the judge, per the law Juvenile Justice Act 2003 Act (ACT 653), the juvenile has duly served his sentence, which is three years.

Still, because of the gravity of the offence and the juvenile saying he dropped out of school at Basic 6, coupled with his intention to learn technical vocation, she said the court would, therefore, sentence him to a senior correctional centre for 12 months to learn what he had always dreamt of doing (technical vocation).

Background

In October last year, a seven-member jury unanimously found the two teenagers guilty on two counts of conspiracy to commit murder and the substantive charge of murder.

The High Court presided over by Justice Lydia Osei Marfo, sentenced the 18-year-old, Nicholas Kini, to life in prison.

Sentencing of the 15-year-old was, however, deferred to the Juvenile Court in line with section 18(1) Juvenile Justice Act 2003 Act (ACT 653).

It states that where a juvenile appears before a court of summary jurisdiction other than a juvenile court on a charge made jointly against the juvenile and a person who has attained the age of eighteen years and the juvenile offender but shall remit the case to the Juvenile Court for sentence.

Facts

According to the prosecution, on March 29, 2021, the accused persons consulted a spiritualist for money rituals locally known as "sakawa".

The said spiritualist, who claimed to be in the Volta Region, was said to have requested GH¢5,000 and a human being to perform the rituals.

On April 3, 2021, the accused persons, according to the prosecution, decided to use the deceased in furtherance of their "sakawa" mission.

At about 9 a.m. on the same day, the prosecutor said, the juvenile accused lured the deceased into an uncompleted building where the second accused had laid ambush with the club of a pickaxe.

“As soon as the deceased arrived, they told him to remove a video game from a sack they had deposited in a corner of the room.

“When the deceased bent down in an attempt to remove the said video game from the sack, the second accused struck him at the back of his neck with the club, causing him to fall,” Nana Osei said.

The deceased, she said, turned to look at the juvenile accused and pleaded with him not to kill him but forgive him if he had offended him but his plea was ignored by the juvenile accused who struck the head of the deceased with a cement block which was in the building.

As a result, the deceased became unconscious but was still breathing.

The accused persons, the prosecution said, further used a spade and a shovel to dig a shallow grave in the room and buried the deceased intending to convey him to the spiritualist.