The prisoners had originally been indicted for murder but the State accepted their guilty plea to manslaughter.

Before imposing the sentences, the judge told the convicts that the first lash with a crowbar could not kill the victim but the second caused his demise.

Justice La Bennett said Daljit did not act rationally because he had drunk alcohol. But she noted that a life was lost and justice must be served.

The case for the Prosecution, presented by State Counsel Ganesh Hira, is that the victim had gone to his sister’s home, at Blairmont, West Bank Berbice, a stone’s throw from his, to celebrate the festive season.

But his brother-in-law, Daljit, who was consuming liquor earlier in the day, had retired to bed and his wife was tidying

their house when the visitor asked for some rum.

He was told none was available and the two siblings became embroiled in a quarrel, during which the brother pushed his older sister off the landing of her house.

After falling, the woman took a cutlass, with which she broadsided her brother and awoke her sleeping husband, who armed himself with the crowbar and struck his brother-in-law on the head.

The Prosecutor said the assaulted man fell but got up and walked a short distance before being hit again by his assailant.

Referring to the deposition given by the wife of the deceased, eyewitness Ratwattie Maliman, the Prosecutor said the quarrel was caused by a remark made by her sister-in-law to her husband.

The witness said Daljit was in the habit of creating problems between Maliman and her husband who, together with their family, had been invited to spend the holiday with his killers.

Maliman was recorded as saying that, after her husband collapsed, she held unto him and he lost consciousness in her arms, before she took him to Fort Wellington Cottage Hospital, West Coast Berbice, where he died on arrival.

The autopsy report, by Dr. Vivikanand Brijmohan, said the death was due to cerebral haemorrhage.

In a mitigation plea, Defence Counsel Johaswir Misir admitted that Daljit awoke from his drunken stupor and grabbed the first thing available which, unfortunately, was a crowbar.

The lawyer said, however, that the prisoner, who had been on remand awaiting trial, spent a little more than two

years reflecting on the sad and cursed day.

Misir said the woman prisoner mothered three grown children and had previously productive years.

He submitted that the fatal acts were not motivated by malice or vindictiveness but happened because of drunkenness.

Defence Counsel said the duo threw themselves at the mercy of the Court.