A convicted Surrey killer who was sentenced to eight years in prison for the brutal beating death of a woman during a party at his place in Newton in 1991 is once again in trouble with the law.
Johnny Romesh Chand, 51, has been sentenced to two years less a day in provincial jail in B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster after being found guilty of two counts of assault with an imitation firearm, two counts of threatening with death or bodily harm, and one count of using an imitation firearm in the commission of an indictable offence.
This latest incident involved a noisy tenant and happened at Chand's mother's place in New Westminster in February 2010.
Justice Lance Bernard heard that Chand had pulled what was believed to have been a replica gun during an argument with a woman who was renting the basement suite from his mom.
The tenant had two male friends over, and they were being noisy, the court heard. Chand went downstairs and told them to "keep it down."
They apparently ignored his warning, to their peril.
The court heard that Chand went downstairs again, pistol-whipped the two men, kicked them, pointed the bogus gun at their heads, and threatened to kill them.
After leaving the scene, Chand tossed the gun into a waste bin at a nearby construction site.
"The gun was never recovered," Justice Lance Bernard noted. "It is, thus, not known if it was a real firearm; however, there is no suggestion that the victims thought otherwise."
The Crown argued for a four-year sentence while the defence sought half that.
"The incident in question was a very brief, albeit violent and frightening, event," Bernard noted. "It was precipitated by an inconsiderate tenant and her friends, none of whom seemed to fully appreciate the disturbance they were causing to others in a quiet residential neighbourhood at a completely unacceptable hour, despite being informed of such in an earlier visit by Mr. Chand."
Bernard found that while Chand was "justifiably angry" his response was "completely out of proportion and entirely inexcusable."
Taking into account the time Chand had already served waiting for his trial, the judge sentenced him to an additional two years less a day.
The court heard Chand already had a criminal record for impaired driving, breaking and entering and manslaughter.
In 1992 Chand and another man had both stood trial for second-degree murder but a jury instead found them guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter in the 1991 kicking and beating death of a Surrey woman during a party that was fueled by cocaine and booze.
Vicki Cicuto, 31, was killed in Chand's basement suite, in the 7800-block of 144th Street, on Thanksgiving weekend after Chand had found a bloody syringe and accused her of shooting up in his bathroom.
In passing sentence, Justice Ross Lander said Cicuto was a "poor, defenceless person" killed during a "prolonged, vicious attack" that had to have been a "horrible and frightening ordeal."
Republished from the Surrey NOW
