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Man gets 72 years for wife’s murder
Sixty-two-year old Jeffrey Ward was yesterday sentenced to 72 years, for the brutal murder of his 32-year-old wife Donette Ward, on April 24, 2010. The mixed jury brought back the guilty verdict some time around 14:00hrs yesterday before Justice Navindra Singh.
The judge started the sentence at 60 years. According to Justice Singh six years were added to the sentence because of the brutality of the crime; another six years were added because of the domestic violence attributed to the crime.
Jeffrey Ward
There were no mitigating factors.
Ward was represented by Attorney-at-Law, Huckumchand. In his caution statement, Ward had admitted to stabbing his wife.
The police recorded Ward as saying “I and my wife had a misunderstanding and I picked up a knife and I stabbed her.”
According to the evidence presented by Senior State Prosecutor Mrs. Judith Gildharie-Mursalin, Ward stabbed his wife nine times with a knife and this resulted in her death.
The court heard that the man had gone to his wife’s home at Lot 100 Herstelling, East Bank Demerara on April 24, 2010. Prosecutor, Gildharie-Mursalin told the court that Donette’s niece Stacey De Cambra, (the chief witness) was also there.
The prosecutor had presented facts that Ward went to the residence and entered his wife’s bedroom and brutally stabbed her. The dead woman’s niece was considered the main witness, since according to the prosecution she had heard her aunt screaming.
After hearing her aunt screaming the woman went into the room where she saw Ward sitting on his wife’s thighs and stabbing her with a knife. The evidence stated that Ward after seeing the niece, lunged at her.
At this point his wounded wife had managed to escape from him and ran towards neighbours. She collapsed in front of neighbours who took her to the hospital.
Seven witnesses testified, among them Princess Peters, mother of the deceased and Adduni Inniss, the female police rank, who accompanied the mortally injured Donette Ward to the Diamond Hospital where she was subsequently pronounced dead.
Government Forensic Pathologist Dr. Nehaul Singh during his evidence in chief, indicated that the woman had sustained nine incised wounds. Singh conducted the post- mortem examination on April 26, 2010, two days after Donette Ward was murdered.
The other two witnesses were the victim’s neighbor Ramchand Roopnarine and police witness Jason Kyte.
Twenty-one-year-old Tyrone Rowe called ‘Cobra’ was recently sentenced to 78 years imprisonment by Justice Singh. According to the Judge although the death penalty is the maximum sentence, it is not mandatory and as such he has developed a new sentencing scheme. Justice Singh explained that last December, he made a ruling stating basically that he did not think that the death penalty was mandatory.
“It’s the maximum sentence so therefore there is the discretion if I want to go with it.” He explained that he worked out from various sentencing schemes a base, then goes to the aggravating factors.
Justice Singh explained that if there are mitigating factors these would be subtracted.
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