New York court jails Guyanese man for nearly beheading wife in Queens

Last Updated on Wednesday, 20 September 2017, 17:49 by Denis Chabrol

(DNAInfo).-QUEENS, NEW YORK — A man who attacked his wife last December on a Richmond Hill street, nearly decapitating her with a kitchen knife, has been sentenced to 21 years in prison, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Prem Rampersaud, 51, who lived in Guyana but was temporarily staying with a friend in South Jamaica, was sentenced Tuesday after pleading guilty to manslaughter in July, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said.

Investigators said that Rampersaud attacked Rajwantie Baldeo, 46, around midnight on Dec. 5, at the corner of 103rd Avenue and 124th Street.

Following a verbal argument, Rampersaud began slapping and choking her before pulling out the knife and stabbing her multiple times throughout her body, police said.

Witnesses told investigators that they saw Rampersaud sawing through his wife’s neck, police said.

The victim, who was found nearly decapitated, was rushed to Jamaica Hospital where she was pronounced dead, officials said.

Rampersaud later told investigators that last year he gave Baldeo $9,000 to come to the U.S. from Guyana.

He also said that he arrived in New York several months later and was temporarily staying with his friend, when he found out that she was dating someone she met online.

He then purchased a long kitchen knife and waited for her to leave work at a restaurant, before attacking her, police said.

“The defendant ended the life of the woman he purportedly loved by repeatedly stabbing her following a heated verbal dispute,” Brown said. “This was a very violent and vicious crime that should not have happened.”

Rampersaud’s attorney did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.