GILBERT WILLIAMS, a farmer of Maggotty, St. Elizabeth, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for manslaughter, has been freed by the Court of Appeal.
He was convicted in the St. Elizabeth Circuit Court on July 3, 2000, arising from the fatal stabbing of Jimmy Robinson, a labourer, also of Maggotty, in June 1994.
The court quashed Williams' conviction and set aside his sentence after it upheld legal arguments from attorney-at-law Ravil Golding that Justice Donald McIntosh did not direct the jury adequately on the issue of Williams' honest belief that he was being attacked by the deceased.
After Robinson was fatally stabbed, Williams left Maggotty and was held in Spanish Town, St. Catherine, six years later.
The Crown led evidence at the trial that Williams and the deceased were cousins. On the day of the incident, they had a fuss over a bed and Williams used a machete to chop Robinson in the neck.
THREAT
A witness said after the fuss, Williams came out of the room and began to sharpen a machete. The witness said that before Williams began sharpening the machete, she heard him saying, "Leave, or mi gwine kill you."
When Williams was arrested, he gave a cautioned statement in which he admitted chopping Robinson after the deceased came up behind him and said, "Boy, you dead tonight." He said he believed Robinson was about to attack him because he used to beat him. He said he spun around with the machete and it caught Robinson in the neck.
The judge, in his summation, said if the jury did not believe Williams that he was being attacked then the question of self-defence did not arise. Mr. Golding submitted that the judge failed to inform the jurors that they should consider whether Williams honestly believed that he was under attack.
Bryan Sykes, Senior Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions, conceded that the summing up was inadequate.
