When domestic violence ends in death…Prosecuting the offenders

Oct 28, 2009 News

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A GINA feature
When the 19-year-old woman peered into her parents bedroom, nothing prepared her for what she was about to see.
The teenager recalled being aroused by a loud scream and the voice of her 35-year-old mother yelling her name.
“I climbed on the vanity and then on the ledge to see over in my parents’ bedroom and I peeped over,” she said.
According to her, her parents were under a mosquito net on the bed and her father’s hand was folded into a fisticuff.
“I saw my dad with his left hand on her stomach and he was moving his right hand in a cuffing motion to her chest. I began to scream and he opened the bedroom door,” she recalled.
She said she ran outside and saw her father in the living room with a long kitchen knife rushing towards the front door before disappearing into the night.
The daughter said she attempted to summon relatives but the phone was disconnected and someone had removed the battery from the cellular phone.
The girl’s mother had been stabbed 13 times on November 4, 2003 after she got out of bed to answer a male caller.
The accused killer tried to persuade the jury that his wife was stabbed during a fight over a knife she kept beneath her pillow but the masterful manoeuvers of the prosecution, led by Attorney-at-Law Satyesh Kissoon, successfully convinced the jury of his guilt.
The fisherman was convicted of the murder and sentenced to death by hanging.
Like her story, there is record of many fatal domestic violence cases that have ruined families and destroyed lives.
But Government’s continued efforts in utilizing resources to bring the perpetrators to justice can, with time, and bring a sense of closure to heal these wounds.
The Guyana Police Force, through the efforts of the Ministry of Home Affairs, has been exhibiting tact and skill in capturing perpetrators and building a strong case that would help to prosecute the offenders.
Over a two-year period, the Government Information Agency (GINA) has recorded at least 15 fatal domestic violence cases that resulted in successful conviction or jail time for the accused person.
On April 4, 2005, the partially-burnt and decomposing corpse of a 34-year-old insurance company employee was discovered in a cemetery behind her home.
Expert police investigators scoured the scene for clues and skillfully preserved evidence that would later result in victory for the State.
The woman’s 39-year-old husband was subsequently convicted of the killing and condemned to die after former State Prosecutors Melissa Yearwood-Stewart and (now Magistrate) Faith McGusty convinced the jury of his guilt.
The prosecutors led evidence to show that the man had clubbed his wife to death with an axe-handle after an argument over their two young children.
“I saw blood rushing from her head and I realised I had given her a fatal blow. I move her and took her downstairs. I decided I would take her around the back and cover her then I went back upstairs to clean the blood,” the man eventually admitted to police.
In another brutal domestic violence spat, a butcher was accused of slashing his wife’s throat, cutting open her stomach and severing her wrists on December 28, 2003.
He had tried to deceive the court into believing that he was clueless as to how the woman came by her injuries. The man initially said that he lost consciousness during a fight with the woman and could not say who harmed her.
However, the prosecution led by Attorney-at-Law Leron Daly, secured the compelling testimony of the man’s 10-year-old foster son, who was an eyewitness to the crime.
Owing to excellent prosecuting work, the 40-year-old man received the death penalty after a 12-man jury found him guilty of the crime.
Another man, who received the death sentence, was accused of sneaking into the unlocked apartment of the mother of his four children and sticking a knife into her neck.
Domestic violence that resulted in death has also escalated between siblings as documented in a 2005 case where a brother was accused of killing his sibling over a farmland feud.
State Counsel Dionne Mc Cammon also related to GINA one of the murder cases she did. This too emanated from domestic violence.
This man was accused of stabbing to death the mother of his four children behind a nursery school in the village where she lived.
The man was the last person to be seen with the woman before she died although no one saw him actually committing the act.
She said there were not very many challenges in her case since the accused person placed himself at the scene in a confession to police. He was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment.
In 2006, an animal hunter escaped the gallows after the jury found evidence for the lesser count of manslaughter. This 27-year-old man was accused of killing his 14-year-old ex-girlfriend and her 19-year-old live-in partner after a bitter triangular affair.
He had killed the couple with a single shotgun blast. He was sentenced to a total of 36 years imprisonment and had issued a brief apology to the relatives of the victims.
On the night of July 6, 2003, a 56-year-old cane-harvester slit the throat of his foster son from ear to ear after the lad threatened to evict the accused from their home.
Four years later, in 2007 the man was found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to 15 years for the crime despite raising arguments of self-defence.
The prosecution, led by State Prosecutor (now Magistrate) Judy Latchman, told a different story of bullying and brutality suffered at the hands of the killer. Latchman led evidence that the accused was stealing cash belonging to the victim’s mother with whom he shared a six-month relationship.
The accused, who was asked to leave the house, returned under the pretext of assembling his belongings, suddenly whipping out a cutlass and mauling the young man.
Eyewitnesses say that the killer had been sharpening a cutlass earlier in the day while other witnesses recalled seeing the victim stumbling out of the house with blood streaming from his head.
There are very few instances where women are the perpetrators of domestic violence but on January 11, 2004, a nursery school teacher added to these statistics.
Her 30-year-old reputed husband, a dental technician, died from a stab wound compounded by blunt trauma to the head after a beating with a rolling pin.
The 26-year-old woman, described during the trial as emotionally dysfunctional, was accused of killing her husband over custody of their three children.  Although the woman tried to convince the jury that she had reacted to some degree of provocation, former State Prosecutor (now Magistrate) Omeyana Hamilton managed to secure a seven-year prison term.
And on February 23, 2001, another woman was implicated in the beheading of her two-month-old baby.
After the testimony of several witnesses, the 32-year-old woman confessed that she had indeed paid a vagrant $500 to decapitate the child and conceal the petite corpse beneath some floor boards.
The woman tried to trick the jury into believing that she was suffering from a severe maternal condition known as “Postpartum Depression”.
However, an alert Former Prosecutor Nadeen Singh secured the testimony of a psychologist who revealed that the woman was suffering the irreversible effects of a brain injury.
The psychologist said that he examined the accused and diagnosed her with “Organic Brain Syndrome” (OBS) a condition which was dissimilar from Postpartum Depression. She was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for her role in the killing.
In 2006, a US-based Guyanese who returned home and killed his wife over a property dispute was also sentenced to 15 years in jail after confessing to the crime.
In an effort to put these perpetrators behind bars, Government has increased support for legal help, as well as shelter to be used as refuge.
Government is also insistent that service providers such as the Police and social workers must work to ensure the domestic violence Act is properly and effectively implemented.

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