Man gets 18 years for killing in-law over jokes

because judgements were impaired through the use of alcohol.

He said that the community should share some blame for the death, as many saw the two men in a scuffle, knew that they were intoxicated and waited only until half an hour after before intervening.

Sounding his client’s pleas for mercy, Kissoon asked that he be given a sentence, which would afford him the opportunity of being a father to his two-year-old son. The lawyer also asked the judge to consider that Samuels had accepted culpability for what he had done.

In response, however, prosecutor Shawnettte Austin asked the court to take into account that the wife of the deceased “is still in anguish,” and frequently has to comfort their four children, who repeatedly ask for their father.

The prosecutor noted, too, that while it may be “harsh,” the deceased’s wife no longer considers the family ties she shares with her cousin.

The judge said that it is never an easy exercise for courts to visit punishment upon persons, especially when a picture is painted of how it all could have been avoided. He described the events of the case as a tragedy. “Families have now been left traumatised by the senseless killing of their own,” the judge said, before adding that if may all have been avoided had the community been more proactive.

Justice Reynolds told Samuels that punishment had to be imposed and that potential offenders have to be deterred.

The sentencing was guided by the World Health Organization’s life expectancy index for men (2015), which puts the figure for Guyana at 63 years, six months. The judge noted that he would start at a midway base of 30 years, from which he deducted five years for the guilty plea, two years for the time Samuels has been incarcerated awaiting trial, and an additional five years for mitigating circumstances. As a result, Samuels was sentenced to 18 years.

The state’s case was presented by Austin, in association with Lisa Cave and Tiffini Lyken.