Latest update January 29th, 2025 1:18 PM
Latest News
- “Now is the time to take more loans”-Sport Minister
- Oil-rich Guyana would be bankrupt if it gave $1M to every family – Minister Bharrat claims
- Five-year-old among two killed in Israeli attacks amid Gaza ceasefire
- Introducing biometrics without legal framework would be unconstitutional – GECOM
- Brutus wants High Court to quash PSC Tribunal
Red Dragon murder…Woman freed of female lover’s murder
A clearly relieved and excited Tiffney Clarke swiftly left the Georgetown Supreme Court yesterday, after Justice Navindra Singh announced that she has been acquitted of murder, given that the jury had found her not guilty of the crime.
Clarke was facing the court for the murder of her lesbian lover, Sonobia James, which occurred some time between February 25, and February 26, 2011 at Red Dragon Night Club.
Tiffney Clarke
Details of the case, suggested that Clarke had stabbed her lover after she became jealous, when she saw her speaking to another woman. James sustained a single stab wound to the neck, which resulted in her death.
However in her unsworn testimony to the court, Clarke contended that James was accidentally stabbed during an altercation. The woman claimed that her girlfriend “ran into the knife”.
“We were having a couple of drinks. I was with a girl sitting down and she was talking to another girl and she call me and I went to her and she asked me if my eyes pass she. She push me.
“I ask she why she do it and we start to fight. She started to beat me up and she hold me by my hair saying you don’t know you done…her purse fell down and the knife she would normally use to cut my skin with, fell out.
“I reached for the knife. I only wanted to stop her from beating me and she loose me and ask me if I want juk her up and she run towards my belly with her head down and she get bore.”
The accused said that the woman immediately collapsed.
“I start cry and say ‘baby get up’ and she try to get up and fall down back and somebody say take her to the hospital… I honestly don’t even know how we reach there.”
In addition, Attorney- at- Law, George Thomas, who represented Clarke throughout the proceeding, told the court that his client had suffered years of physical and emotional abuse, at the hands of the victim.
Thomas claimed that Clarke had several scars about her body, testimony to the attacks she suffered. When the case came up in the High Court, the lawyer instructed his client to remove her blouse in the dock, revealing scars on her arms.
He claimed that on the night of the incident, his client as customary was under attack by her lover, when she (the victim) received her injuries.
Nonetheless, State Prosecutor, Dhanika Singh, in her closing address yesterday urged the jurors not be distracted by tales of abuse, since it does not change the fact that Clarke imposed upon her girlfriend, the injuries, which lead to her death.
“This accused sat in prison for three years, giving her enough time to think about which part of her story, she wanted to change.”
Yesterday, after almost four hours of deliberation, the mixed twelve- member jury returned to the courtroom. They had found Clarke not guilty of murder and not guilty of the lesser count of manslaughter.
Before the Judge could conclude his declaration, that Clarke was a free a woman, a female member of the audience, let out a loud scream, causing a brief interruption to the proceedings.
As Clarke hurriedly left the courtroom, she was greeted by relatives and friends, who anxiously led her away from the confines of the court.
Similar Articles
THE BLUNT OF THE DAY
Sports
Features/Columnists
A warning to President Ali on U.S. Overtures
Peeping Tom… Kaieteur News- It remains unknown what President Ali told the U.S. Secretary of State during their recent... more
OAS Secretary General Election and renewed OAS Consensus
Antiguan Barbudan Ambassador to the United States, Sir Ronald Sanders By Sir Ronald Sanders Kaieteur News- The upcoming election... more
Weekend Cartoon
