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The Cuban citizen Yoel Rodríguez Barrientos, 32 years old, was sentenced to life in prison by the High Court of Demerara in Guyana after confessing to the murder of his partner and her daughter, an 11-year-old girl whom he killed after she discovered her mother's crime.
According to the Guyanese outlet Ignite News, the sentence was handed down last Thursday by Judge Nicola Pierre, who imposed two life sentences: one with the possibility of parole after 35 years for the murder of Tara Krishnaran, 34, and another with the possibility of applying for that benefit after 40 years for the death of Larissa Singh, 11. Both sentences will be served concurrently.
The events took place on December 25, 2020, at the family home located on Princess Street, Lodge, Georgetown. According to the investigation, a disagreement between the couple escalated into a violent assault during which Barrientos repeatedly struck Krishnaran in the head with a hammer, causing fatal injuries and severe facial disfigurement.
Soon after, the young girl entered the room and found her mother's body. Barrientos then attacked her with a knife, slitting her throat, and struck her with a hammer until she was dead.
The Guyanese Police stated from the outset of the investigation that the Cuban, originally from Santiago de Cuba, killed the girl to prevent her from testifying against him as a witness to the crime.
After committing the double homicide, Barrientos fled the scene. Authorities issued a search warrant and were able to capture him hours later in Amelia's Ward, Linden (Region 10), thanks to intelligence information received that same day.
During the reading of the sentence, Judge Pierre emphasized the seriousness of the events and stated that the accused "betrayed a special relationship of trust and responsibility," as Larissa lived with him in a fatherly role that was supposed to provide her with protection and security. Regarding the minor's mother, she recalled that "she was not killed by a stranger on the street, but by someone within her own home."
The court also ordered that the time Barrientos has spent in preventive detention since December 2020 be deducted from his sentence and mandated that he participate in anger management programs during his imprisonment.
At the end of the hearing, the victims' families expressed relief at the verdict, although they acknowledged that no sentence could compensate for the loss they endured. They remembered Krishnaran as an outgoing and ambitious woman, and described Larissa as a beloved child in her community.
The case bears similarities to another crime involving a Cuban citizen in Guyana. In May 2025, Wispriey Alfonso, 40 years old, stabbed his 21-year-old stepdaughter to death with a butcher knife in Georgetown and seriously injured the young woman’s mother, in another instance of domestic violence.
According to data from UN Women and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Guyana has one of the highest femicide rates in the Caribbean, with two murders of women for every 100,000 inhabitants committed by their partners or ex-partners. Furthermore, approximately 85% of these crimes are perpetrated by intimate partners or family members.
With the time served in preventive detention, Barrientos will need to remain incarcerated at least until 2055, when he can apply for parole for the first time for the conviction with the shortest minimum period.
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