Mother found guilty of poisoning her two children in Mahaicony,court reduces sentence

Georgetown, Guyana: Hosfosuwa Amena Rutherford, a 30-year-old mother of two from Mahaicony, was found guilty of poisoning her children to death and received a reduced sentence for her act.

She was originally sentenced to 98 years in prison for poisoning her two children. However, the Court of Appeal reduced her sentence to 30 years.

Details about the case

Notably, in 2018, Rutherford was apprehended on the dual charges of manslaughter. She has appeared in the court of Judge Navindra Singh and the panel found her guilty on both the counts.

She was sentenced to 45 years in prison on the first count of charge for killing her 4-year-old Hodascia Cadogan and on the second count, she has been given a sentence of 53 years for killing Jabari Cadogan, who was a one-year-old toddler.

A 30-year-old mother was initially sentenced to imprisonment for 98 years by the order for the jail terms, which would be served consecutively, and notably, she was not eligible for parole.

Rutherford pleaded an appeal where she mentioned that a 98-year prison sentence was given to her for killing her children, which was disproportionate and did not follow sentencing rules.

The Court of Appeal then determined that the trial Judge’s sentence of 98 years was too excessive. In such circumstances, the Appellate Court resentenced a mother to 30 years for killing her daughter and another 30 years for killing her son.

Notably, the two sentences were ordered to run concurrently, which means that she will only have to spend 30 years behind bars. She has been locked up since 2014.

It is mandatory that this convict serve 20 years before she is eligible for parole.

As per evidence given by the State on March 27, 2014, it stated that Rutherford gave each of her children half of a tablet which contained aluminium phosphide, a rat poison.

In her defence, a 30-year-old mother argued that she had purchased cold pills for her children from a man selling rat poison at the Plaisance in East Coast Demerara (ECD) bus park in Georgetown.

After her children were poisoned, Rutherford was admitted to the hospital for seven days. She herself had consumed two tablets of rat poison after giving the same to her children.

As soon as this news gained the limelight, many people reacted to this news on social media.

One user by the name of Daniel David commented, “I pray that God help this mother to use her situation to be an ambassador in helping mothers who may be going through similar problems domestically. I hate people who are quick to criticize others without trying to put themselves in the person’s shoes. You are criticizing. That is why our country can go forward, and you mothers who are wishing your fellow woman stop it, be an agent of change.”

Another user named Veronique Carlotte Williams, while reacting to the post, wrote, “No one knows what she was thinking at that moment but her actions tell, kill the children and herself but Jesus Christ let she survived death, that means you have to pay for your actions, I agreed give them up for adoption or put them in and orphanage, she is not the giver of life so she has no right taking it away from her beautiful children, if she have to spend 60 years so be it.”