The Queen Complainant v Claudius Edward Defendant [ECSC]
| Jurisdiction | St Lucia |
| Judge | Benjamin, J,KENNETH BENJAMIN |
| Judgment Date | 11 July 2011 |
| Judgment citation (vLex) | [2011] ECSC J0711-1 |
| Date | 11 July 2011 |
| Court | High Court (Saint Lucia) |
| Docket Number | CASE NO. SLUHCRD2009/0025 |
THE EASTERN CARIBBEAN SUPREME COURT
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
(CRIMINAL DIVISION)
CASE NO. SLUHCRD2009/0025
On May 23, 2011, the defendant, Claudius Edward, pleaded guilty to the offence of manslaughter on an indictment which preferred a charge of murder contrary to section 85 (b) of the Criminal Code of Saint Lucia 2004. The Indictment alleged that the defendant caused the death of McMilan John Joseph also known as Johnny, intending tocause the said McMilan John Joseph grievous bodily injury, on July 3, 2006 at Jacmel, Anse-La-Raye.
At the request of Counsel the sentencing hearing was adjourned to obtain a pre-sentence report which has since being submitted. A plea in mitigation of sentence was presented by Counsel on behalf of the defendant.
The defendant is a thirty-five (35) year old man who has never been married and has no children. Prior to the incident, the defendant was in an intimate relationship with one Sonia George who hailed from Jacmel, Anse-La-Raye. It is at the home of Sonia George's parents at Jacmel where she then resided that the incident took place.
The plea was plainly premised on the Crown's acceptance that provocation featured on the evidence. However, the Crown's version of the facts varies from what defendant told the Probation Officer and what was urged in mitigation. Crown Counsel told the Court that Sonia George had unilaterally ended her intimate visiting relationship with the defendant in April 2006 and had thereafter developed an intimate visiting relationship with the deceased. The defendant told the Probation Officer that it was a cohabiting relationship where the defendant and Sonia George lived together at Bocage. Learned Counsel told the Court at the sentencing hearing that, from about February 2005 to about June 2006, the defendant and Sonia George lived with the defendant's brother at Bocage. The defendant told the Probation Officer that Sonia George had left Bocage to pay an extended visit to her parents and he went to visit her there for the weekend. It follows from this that the defendant did not consider the relationship to be at an end and that Sonia George did not disclose her prior cohabitation with the defendant. It however is not disputed that Sonia George and the deceased were involved in a relationship.
In support of his contention that the relationship with Sonia George still subsisted at the time of the fatal incident, the defendant told the Probation Officer that Sonia George had told her parents that she was two months' pregnant and that he was the father. He recalled purchasing alcoholic drinks to celebrate the announcement. Subsequent events reveal that Sonia George did deliver a child but she claimed to be uncertain of paternity and opted to give up the child for foster care.
The Crown's version of events is that the deceased was visiting Sonia George at her parents' home from July 2, 2006 and while there, the defendant came in the house protesting the presence of the deceased and refusing to leave the house. The defendant told Sonia George that the deceased was not in a position to help her or to take care of her. Sonia George repeated to the defendant that their relationship was at en end. The defendant refused to leave and remained in the house at time leaving the house to going outside only to return. While Sonia George, her family and the deceased were watching television in the front room of the house, the defendant asserted that he was not moving and that he was sleeping at the house that night. The deceased told the defendant to leave the house. The defendant went outside with Sonia George who called her brother in an effort to have the defendant sleep at her brother's house nearby. Her brother did not respond. She tried to return to her parents' home and close the door on the defendant but he barged back into the house behind her. Sonia George state the defendant went up to the deceased and stabbed him quickly with a long knife on the left side of his chest. Sonia George's mother stated that the deceased was asleep all the time. The defendant then ran away. Sonia George said that when the deceased got stabbed she went into the bedroom and got a cutlass while the deceased fell into a chair without doing anything.
The defendant told the Probation Officer that at about 1:00 a.m. on July 3, 2006, the deceased came to the house and sat next to Sonia George. The defendant asked her for an explanation and the deceased began yelling at him. It is at this point he said that Sonia George told him their relationship was at an end resulting in an argument. The defendantcontinued that the deceased reaching for a cutlass and attempted to stick him with it but he evaded the cutlass. He tried to leave the house but the deceased blocked his exit. He then picked up a knife and as the deceased tried to strike him a second time he pricked him with the knife and the deceased fell into a chair and the cutlass fell from his hands to the floor. The defendant related that Sonia George got angry and pursued him out of the house while he had the knife in his hand.
During his mitigation plea, learned Counsel furnished the added detail that the defendant was following Sonia George back to the house, after she tried calling her brother, he inquired of her. "I thought you told me you were pregnant for me, what happen now?" As she tried to push him out of the house, an altercation arose between the defendant and the deceased. The deceased picked up a cutlass and in attempting to swing it at the defendant he lost his balance at which time the defendant took a knife he saw on a table and inflicted the fatal blow.
The defendant left the house with the knife after the incident. He was subsequently apprehended by Police and a knife fourteen (14) inches in length was recovered after the defendant was seen to pull it out from under his shirt.
After a post-mortem examination, the cause of death of the deceased, McMilan John Joseph aka Johnny formerly of Bisee, Castries, was given by the pathologist as hemorrhagic shock as a result of a single stab wound to the chest.
, The Defence asserted that the things said and done by both the deceased and Sonia George caused the defendant to react out of terror of imminent harm thereby losing his self-control. In this regard, learned Counsel referred to the case ofJabeel Lewis v. The State— Privy Council Appeal No. 93 of 2009 at paragraphs 15, 16 and 18.
Learned Counsel adopted the version of the facts given to the Probation Officer in preference to the stated account of the Prosecution. The adopted version makes reference to the deceased shouting at the defendant to leave the house, followed by Sonia George declaring that she was no longer in a relationship with him and the deceased accosting the defendant with a cutlass. These matters were urged as the basis for the loss of self-control by the defendant. It seems plain that these events amounted to sufficient evidence upon which a factual finding could be made as to the defendant being provoked to lose his temper within the meaning of section 91 of the Criminal Code of Saint Lucia,...
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