Man gets 13 years for killing Rosignol woman

A West Berbice man was on Monday sentenced to 13 years in prison, after he pleaded guilty to the lesser count of manslaughter. Anderson Nicolson, also called “Andy” or “Cow Bow”, admitted to killing Trevelyan Amelia Kingston, also called “Trevelyan K Nicolson” and “Trevelyan Amelia Nicolson”, on October 4, 2008 at Rosignol.
State Prosecutor, Prithina Kissoon, told the court that on the day in question, the mother of the deceased visited her daughter’s home at Rosignol Village and found the common-law couple involved in an argument. She said the mother intervened and took her daughter to her home in the next village. However, the man followed them and started to verbally abuse the younger woman, while her mother was sitting on the step. “Then he went into the backyard and got a cutlass and started to fire chops at the now deceased Trevelyan Amelia Kingston,” the mother said.
Once again the mother interceded. As a result, she received one chop to the forehead and exited the yard, while her daughter ran onto the “PNC Dam” pursued by Nicolson.  Kingston was chopped on both legs and on her neck. According to the prosecutor, it was on the church bridge that Nicolson inflicted the fatal chop. “She collapsed on the church bridge. The incident was witnessed by Police Detective Constable Juke Jacque, who chased him along the “PNC Dam”, but Nicolson escaped in the bushes.” Kissoon told the court.
The cause of death was given as haemorrhage and shock due to multiple incised wounds. In a probation report on Nicolson, Probation Officer Irene Thomas said the accused grew up in a broken home and at the age of six, he was basically left unsupervised, with no one to provide him with basic training in preparation for adult life. “At 14 years, the accused was removed from the school system by his parents and placed in the care and custody of a paternal uncle, who owned a cattle ranch, to assist with rearing the cattle.”
Thomas said those factors together with inadequate education, robbed the accused of the ability to make rational decisions.

Before passing sentence, Justice Roxanne George-Wiltshire asked the accused if he had anything to say, and he took out a sheet of paper and started reading; he thanked the court and said that he was remorseful. “I made up my mind to become a Christian…. Currently my chores in prison include preaching the gospel. I am a baptised (Christian)… I have come to realise that something wrong was done. It is good to accept and face up to what is morally right.”
The judge told the accused that she was glad that he found religious satisfaction. In her ruling she said that the accused will start with 23 years. Upon hearing this, the accused’s eyes widened in surprise. The judge then added that because the accused did not waste the court’s time and pleaded guilty before the trial started, she will deduct three years; another three years were deducted because of a favourable probation report and “as mandated by the Caribbean Court of Justice” the time Nicholson spent in prison was also deducted, for a sentence of 13 years.