Bio 

Oral Hendricks was born in Guyana around 1967. By 1992, Hendricks was 25 years old and working as a caretaker at the Speedway Hotel at Land of Canaan, East Bank Demerara. He was described in later reports as a quiet and ordinary man who did not have an obvious public history of violent behavior.

Hendricks entered into a common-law relationship with Carol Braithwaithe, who had three young children: seven-year-old Jason Braithwaithe, four-year-old Althea George, and two-year-old Travis Bunbury. Carol later moved to Plaisance, where she reportedly had a live-in job, and the children were left in Hendricks’ care.

The arrangement continued for several months. At one point, Hendricks took the children to the West Demerara Regional Hospital and left them there. Hospital staff cared for the children until Hendricks collected them again on Friday, December 10, 1992.

Two days later, on December 12, 1992, the children were killed. Prosecutors later said Hendricks confessed that he murdered them because he was angry with their mother. At trial, however, his attorneys argued that he had an alibi and that he loved the children as if they were his own.

Murder Story

On Friday, December 10, 1992, Oral Hendricks collected Jason Braithwaithe, Althea George, and Travis Bunbury from the West Demerara Regional Hospital, where they had been staying under the care of hospital staff. On the night of Saturday, December 12, 1992, Hendricks took the three children to a canal or punt trench at Depot Dam in Pouderoyen, West Bank Demerara. The children were the young children of his common-law partner, Carol Braithwaithe.

According to the prosecution case and later reports of Hendricks’ confession, he first threw two-year-old Travis Bunbury into the water and watched him drown. He then threw four-year-old Althea George into the water, and she also drowned. Hendricks then threw seven-year-old Jason Braithwaithe into the canal. Jason was able to swim toward the other side and tried to escape. Hendricks pursued him, used a knife to cut his throat, and then held his head under the water until he died.

The next day, December 13, 1992, Hendricks went to his brother’s home at Depot Dam, Pouderoyen, and told him what had happened. His brother and another man went to the canal and began searching. The bodies of Travis Bunbury and Althea George were found first. Jason Braithwaithe’s body was found later that afternoon. Shortly afterward, Hendricks surrendered to police at the Vreed-en-Hoop Police Station. He was charged with murder on December 15, 1992.

During the trial, the defence denied that Hendricks had killed the children. His attorneys said he had an alibi and argued that he cared for the children. The prosecution presented evidence that the children had been handed over to Hendricks on December 10, 1992. Prosecutors also relied on a statement in which Hendricks confessed to the killings and said he acted because he was angry with the children’s mother.

On February 5, 1996, a jury found Oral Hendricks guilty of murder. Before sentence was passed, Chief Justice Cecil Kennard asked him if he had anything to say. Hendricks replied: “I did not commit this crime.” He was sentenced to death. His appeal was later dismissed in 1997, and in 2000 a death warrant was read to him. His execution was scheduled for February 7, 2000, but his attorneys obtained a stay of execution.

Hendricks later brought a complaint before the United Nations Human Rights Committee. In 2002, the Committee found that Guyana had violated his rights because he had been held for more than three years before trial and because legal assistance had not been available at all stages of the preliminary proceedings in a capital case. The Committee said Guyana should provide an effective remedy, including commutation of sentence.

In late 2012, acting Chief Justice Ian Chang commuted Hendricks’ death sentence to life imprisonment. The court order was entered on December 28, 2012.