1997 Kallang landlady murder
On 13 March 1997, at one of the HDB flats in King George's Avenue, Kallang, Singapore, 53-year-old Sivapackiam Veerappan Rengasamy was discovered dead in her bedroom by her son.
However, the prosecution's subsequent appeal led to Gerardine being sentenced to death for the original charge of murder, and she was executed alongside the two men in February 1999.
Kamala was the sole person out of the four to escape the gallows after she was sentenced to seven years' imprisonment for culpable homicide and conspiracy to commit robbery in a separate trial.
Among the witnesses Inspector Yeo interviewed, one of them was 34-year-old Indian prostitute Gerardine Andrew (alias Maria), who rented a room at Sivapackiam's flat for two and a half months prior to the case.
[6][7] It was revealed that Gerardine were friends with the trio, and prior to the case, both Nazar and Mansoor were homeless and slept at the streets of Farrer Park Stadium.
[9][10] On 12 January 1998, the remaining three suspects - Gerardine Andrew, Mansoor Abdullah and Nazar Mohamed Kassim - claimed trial for murder in the High Court.
[17] However, the prosecution raised the fact that while Gerardine genuinely did not intend to cause Sivapackiam's death, the fact that her direction of the robbery plan and assault having led to the landlady's death demonstrated that there was an intention to cause not merely simple injury, but also serious harm to the landlady, and her alleged awareness of dangerous weapons in Nazar's possession should be factors pointing to Gerardine's guilt for murder under the law.
However, in court, Nazar additionally stated he suffered from temporary insanity and a mental blackout during the course of stabbing, as a result of headaches caused by a childhood traumatic injury to his head.
Since he did not have any abnormality of the mind, and that he intentionally inflicted knife injuries on Sivapackiam, for which the wounds were in the ordinary cause of nature could lead to death, there were sufficient grounds to find Nazar guilty of murder.
They argued that Gerardine should be guilty of the original charge of murder and requested to the Court of Appeal to overturn both her conviction for culpable homicide and her eight-year sentence.
Finally, the prosecution pointed out that direct participation in the act should not be the only reason to convict a person of murder as they cited past court cases, highlighting that Gerardine's acts of giving the men gloves, leading them to Sivapackiam's flat and instructing them the next steps in the robbery and assault plan amounted to sufficient grounds to warrant a guilty verdict of murder in Gerardine's case.
Due to her conviction for the capital charge of murder, 36-year-old Gerardine Andrew's eight-year jail term was revoked, and she was automatically sentenced to death by the Court of Appeal.
[34] On the Friday morning of 26 February 1999, the three convicted killers - 36-year-old Gerardine Andrew, 23-year-old Mansoor Abdullah and 28-year-old Nazar Mohamed Kassim - were all hanged at Changi Prison.
[35][36][37] Gerardine was recalled as one of the few women who were sentenced to death for capital crimes in Singapore (which also included Mimi Wong, Tan Mui Choo and Hoe Kah Hong).
It first aired as the seventh episode of the show's second season on 7 October 2003, and Nazar's former lawyer David Rasif was featured in an on-screen interview relating to his client's case.
[41] The prosecution's appeal verdict, titled Public Prosecutor v Gerardine Andrew, was listed as one of the notable legal cases which touched on the concept of common intention to commit an offence.
