Taaj Muhammed, who was found guilty on February 24 of shooting and killing 30-year-old Ronniko Burchall outside of St. David’s Cricket Club on December 29, 2018, was sentenced in the Supreme Court this afternoon.
Before Puisne Judge Juan Wolffe handed down his sentence, several victim impact statements were read in court.
Jeanika Brimmer, mother of Mr. Burchall’s five-year-old daughter who was only two at the time her father was shot, said in her statement that she will never forget December 28/29, 2018 and is still recovering from the event which happened on those dates.
“ My youngest daughter still does not know or comprehend why she cannot see her father anymore and I dread the day that she wants to know more about her father and why he was taken from her,” the statement read. “ The defendant’s decision to take the life of a human being without regard for the effect it may have on others is unimaginable and completely selfish.”
According to Ms. Brimmer, her and Mr. Burchall’s daughter still has nightmares and wakes up in the middle of the night begging to see her father.
“ February 19 of this year was the first time that I had taken my daughters to their father’s grave since the day of his urial (January 5, 2019), and all my five-year-old wanted to do was dig into the ground so that she could see him,” the statement read. “ She is so young and does not even understand the concept of death. How is that fair to either of my daughters? . . . My daughter’s school had a father-daughter winter formal dance, yet she had no dad to attend the dance with.
This broke our hearts and my oldest daughter just wanted to leave as she felt left out.”
In her statement, Ms. Brimmer also highlighted that her partner’s murder made her lose hope in the only place she ever called home. She still wonders how her home could break her heart the way they did in 2018.
Taking all factors into consideration, Puisne Judge Juan Wolffe sentenced the 26-year-old to life in prison and ordered that he serve 35 years in prison before possibly becoming eligible for parole.