BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – MURDER-convicted Wycliffe ‘Wicked’ Liburd escaped the gallows yesterday (Oct. 22) but was sentenced to life imprisonment for the shooting death of Charles ‘Abaloo’ Mathew.
After being tried by a 12-member jury during the May 2009 Criminal Assizes, Liburd was convicted of the April 18, 2008 offence which began on Lower Shaw Avenue and ended at the junction of that road and Cunningham Street.
According to one eyewitness’ account of the incident, Liburd approached Matthew asking him for some money owed to him, and after he was informed by the deceased that he did not have it, Liburd shot him. The witness further explained that Matthew ran and was pursued by Liburd at which point he grabbed on to him and they began wrangling.
The wrangling ended when Liburd, according to the witness, again shot Matthew a number of times causing him to collapse and die.
Director of Public Prosecution Paulina Hendrickson told the court after Liburd’s conviction that she was seeking the ultimate penalty as prescribed by law, death by hanging.
During his sentencing hearing - which stretched over a number of sessions – defence counsel Vincent Warner and the prosecution team presented mitigating and aggravating factors, respectively, to the court which his Lordship Justice Frances Belle took into consideration when passing his judgment.
Of particular note was His Lordship’s mention of the Privy Counsel case appeal of Daniel Dick Trimmingham vs. the Queen. Trimmingham was convicted of heinously murdering an elderly man.
His intention was to rob him but after being told he had no money, Trimmingham proceeded to take the elderly man’s machete, cut his throat and remove his head from his body. Having done so, he removed the dead man’s pants in which he wrapped the dismembered head and disposed of it. He also slit the belly of the deceased man, explaining that that measure was to prevent any swelling of the body.
The Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeal agreed with the trial judge, who explained that this murder fit into the category of the “rarest of rare” and upheld the death sentence which was imposed.
At the Privy Counsel level, however, the case was said to not fitting into the category of the “worst of the worst”, and although Trimmingham “behaved in a revolting fashion” his case “is not comparable with the worst cases of sadistic killings”. Their Lordships advised Her Majesty that Trimmingham’s sentence be commuted to life imprisonment.
Justice Belle explained if that case could not have been considered the “worst of the worst” neither could Liburd’s. He however, explained, that Matthew’s murder was coldblooded and brutal and he “has to be excluded from society for a very long time”.
After sentencing, a stoic Liburd was taken from the halls of the court to the confinement of the walls of Her Majesty’s Prison where he is to begin his sentence.
