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Royal Park case: AG asks for death sentence

By Ayesha R. Rafiq

The Attorney General has filed an appeal asking that the accused in the Royal Park murder case be found guilty of murder, setting aside the lesser conviction of culpable homicide handed down by the Colombo High Court two weeks ago, Solicitor General C.R.de Silva said yesterday.

Shramantha being led out of the court after the verdict

Jude Shramantha Jayamaha was found guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and sentenced to 12 years rigorous imprisonment for the murder last year of Yvonne Jonsson, a 19-year-old friend of his.

Mr. de Silva P.C. said the Attorney General has asked that the ‘verdict and sentence be set aside and a conviction of murder given for which the sentence can be nothing but death’.

The appeal was filed on the basis that the judge had misdirected himself on the law applicable to the offence of murder, and the facts were such that there should have been a conviction of murder, Mr. de Silva said.

Yvonne, a fashion design student who had come to Sri Lanka for her summer vacation from the US, was found dead at the Royal Park condominium on July 1 last year.

She had received several blows and had her head smashed against the staircase in addition to being strangled. She had been murdered reportedly following an argument between her and the accused.

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