BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – NOTWITHSTANDING that the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (ECSC) Court of Appeal had the difficult task of disposing of 29 civil and criminal appeals in less than one week, it managed to dispose of some 94 percent of the listed high court criminal appeals.
The local sitting of the Court of Appeal officially commenced last Monday (May 18) at the Sir Lee Llewellyn Moore Judicial and Legal Services Complex, Basseterre and closed on Thursday (May 21), giving Chief Justice the Honourable Hugh Anthony Rawlins and the Justices of Appeal an approximate four days to complete as much of the task as possible.
Some 16 High Court Criminal Appeals were listed for hearing during this sitting and all, except one, were disposed of.
Jamella Wilson and Deshorne Nisbett won their appeals against conviction and sentence and had their murder conviction changed to that of manslaughter. Nisbett, who was 15 years old when the offence was committed, has his life sentence commuted to “time spent” plus a two-year suspended sentence. Wilson’s life sentence was commuted to 15 years.
Elvan Warner was convicted of “store breaking with intent” in February 2008 and was sentenced to serve three years imprisonment. He appealed against conviction and sentence and while the Justices of Appeal found some merit in his argument, they agreed that the evidence against him was too strong and affirmed both conviction and sentence.
Ottley Simmonds’ conviction of and sentence for “attempted murder” were affirmed by the Court of Appeal as were those of Leon Samuel who was convicted of “house breaking” in October 2007.
Quintet Kassim Buchanan, Gavin Warner and Long brothers Eric, Jevon and Curtis were tried during the January 2006 Criminal Assizes and were convicted of “wounding with intent” and each sentenced to six years imprisonment. They were also to each receive six strokes with a tamarind rod. The arguments forwarded on behalf of Buchanan and the Long brothers to the Court of Appeal were found to have merit and their appeals were granted. Their conviction was quashed and their sentences set aside. Warner’s conviction and sentence were affirmed, however, the corporal punishment portion was removed.
With their appeals dismissed, Joseph Charles and Evron Williams, who were convicted of “assault with intent to rob”, will serve their full eight-year sentences. The same stands for Jonelle ‘J2’ Merritt who was convicted of “wounding with intent” and sentenced to an eight-year prison term. Shawn Phillip, who was sentenced to serve eight years at Her Majesty’s Prison for shooting a Defence Force soldier, had his appeal dismissed and both sentence and conviction handed down by the High Court were affirmed.
Ivan James’ appeal against conviction of “burglary” was dismissed but that against sentence was granted, which resulted in his 15-year custodial sentence being reduced to 10 years.
Lumumba Matthew and Justin Bass, who were convicted of murdering Darren Berry and attempting to murder his older brother Dion Berry, appealed both the conviction and the death sentence which were handed them. While the conviction was affirmed, the appeal against the death penalty was allowed and sentence commuted to life imprisonment.
An 18-month custodial sentence was handed down to Damian Spence’s as punishment for a “larceny” offence, but his appeal to the Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeal resulted in his sentence being commuted to 12 months in prison.
His conviction of attempted murder and sentence to 10 years in prison were both affirmed by the Court of Appeal. However that court ordered that Garvey Rogers’ sentence begins not from the sentencing date but rather from his date of arrest.
Zahid Ali’s appeal against a “rape” conviction and sentence were found to have merit at the Court of Appeal and both were overturned by that court.
For “want of prosecution”, Phillip Francis’ appeal against a “receiving” conviction and sentence, was dismissed. Francis completed serving his sentence some three months before the appeal could be heard.
The sole High Court criminal appeal case which was not heard, but traversed, is that of Crispin Prentice who was convicted of “murder” in June 2006. He was sentenced to serve a 25-year prison sentence for the June 27, 2004 offence. His co-accused was Sheldon Cannonier but he was acquitted of the charge.
The next local sitting of the Court of Appeal is scheduled for later this year.
