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Man gets 18 years for killing wife
Sixty-one year-old Godfrey Stewart called ‘Dougla,’ of Yarrowkabra Linden-Soesdyke Highway, was on Monday sentenced to 18 years in jail, for killing his reputed wife, Jacqueline George.
Stewart, who was initially indicted for murder in March 2010, pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter, when he appeared at the High Court before Justice Franklyn Holder and a mixed 12-member Jury last month. The accused was
Godfrey Stewart
however sentenced on Monday.
Stewart was facing the court for killing George a newspaper vendor, with whom he had shared a common law relationship. The couple had shared a home at ‘E’ Field Sophia.
The murder occurred sometime between March 13 and 14, 2010.The victim’s throat was slashed. Her charred remains were found among debris of the burnt house, hours after the incident took place.
Senior State Counsel Judith Gildarie-Mursalin presented to the court that Stewart had antecedents with the law.
Among them were convictions for attempted larceny, common assault, and manslaughter. Stewart had previously served six years in prison for the killing of another woman, Dawn Edinborough.
In addition, the Prosecutor asked that the court take into consideration that the post mortem examination proved that the victim had died long before she was torched.
Five days after slashing the woman’s throat and torching the home they once shared, Stewart turned himself in at the Turkeyen Police Station.
The accused had told the police while being arrested, that his wife was missing several hours before the incident reportedly took place. According to the caution statement, Stewart told police that when his wife came home, “I ask she where she bin, she said she is she own big woman … She pick up a knife and start to stab me on my neck, belly and chest.”
The man said that he had a scuffle with the woman, whose throat was slashed during the ordeal. “She pick up the lighted one-burner stove to throw on me and she slip and hit she head. The stove fall on the bed and the place ketch afire.”
Stewart told investigators that he ran into a nearby canefield and hid. He said that he came out of hiding after the wounds he received became infected.
When given a chance to speak, the accused told the court that “it is very unfortunate that I have to answer to this charge…I am throwing myself at the mercy of this full court.”
He was represented by Attorneys Maxwell Mc Kay, Bettina Glasford and Brendan Glasford. The lawyers had requested a probation report prior to the accused being sentenced. The report was presented by Ms Colleen Anthony. The lawyers asked that the court take into consideration that their client was remorseful and had not wasted the court’s time.
However, after listening to the probation report and the Prosecutor’s submission, the Judge handed down the 18-year jail sentence. Justice Holder summed up that the accused had not learnt from his past implications with the law.
“I‘ve listened to facts of the case presented by the prosecution and the probation report. The report has no mitigating factors rather it contains things that further aggravate … I have considered that you have served time before, but the fact that you are here points to you being of deviant behavior that years of incarceration did not change…the court cannot condone this.”
Stewart wore an ‘expressionless’ look on his face, throughout the ruling.
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