A 29-year-old man was sentenced to 12 years in prison after he admitted to hacking his father to death. Andrew Gomes was indicted with the murder of his 57-year-old father, Stanislaus Gomes, on November 27, 2008, at their Waikabra, Soesdyke Linden/ Highway home.
On Tuesday, a 12-mixed jury panel was selected before Justice Navindra Singh at the High Court.
The prosecution was led by Senior State Counsel Judith Mursalin and the accused was represented by Attorney Hukumchand Parag. The prosecutor had some four witnesses lined up to testify against the accused.
State’s case
The state’s case is that Gomes hacked his father to death after the man refused to give him Gy$ 200 to buy drugs. The man was chopped five times about his body and the top of his head was reportedly split in two. After killing his father, Gomes went to neighbours some distance away and told them of his actions.
The first witness, a police officer, testified that when he arrested the accused, he admitted to killing his father, saying his father had attacked him and even took the officer to where the cutlass was.
The officer said he had also taken a written statement from the accused; however, before the statement could be admitted, Attorney Hukumchand informed the court that his client wished to plead guilty to the lesser count of manslaughter.
As such, a charge of manslaughter was read to the accused and he pleaded guilty. After the facts of the case were read out upon his request, Attorney Hukumchand made a mitigation plea, asking the court to be merciful. He noted that his client had a rough childhood, since his mother died when he was very young.
Before sentencing, Gomes was asked whether he had anything to say and told the court, “Ah really sorry for what happen with me and me father. He was really harassing me and it was really an accident.”
Mitigating factors
Justice Singh then proceeded with sentencing; starting with a base of 30 years, he deducted 18 years for mitigating factors – three years were taken off for the guilty plea, five for the time he served while awaiting trial, five for immediately confessing to his crime when he was arrested, and another five years were taken off for the fact that the deceased had initiated the confrontation by attacking his son.
After receiving his sentence, Gomes was escorted out of the courtroom, he waved to everyone, thanking them.
Gomes was on trial in the June session; however, the matter had to be aborted by the presiding judge after a newspaper had reported details of a voir dire (a trial within a trial held in the absence of the jury) and untrue statements allegedly made by the state counsel. That reporter and the newspaper’s editor were both fined for contempt of court.
