JUSTICE Dawn Gregory, who intended to jail a 44-year old murderer for 18 years, ended up sending him to 12 years imprisonment for manslaughter on Tuesday. The accused, Mark Andrew Stanuel, also called ‘Horseman’, was accused of the murder of Mark Gaskin, on 9th January, 2009, but because of the peculiar circumstances of the case, he was allowed to plead guilty to the lesser count of manslaughter.
Stanuel resided on the Lamaha railway embankment not far from his sister, Simone. Simone was Gaskin’s girlfriend and he used to beat her badly.
On the day in question, the sister reported that she had an argument with Stanuel, who chopped her on the hand with a cutlass.
The accused took offence to the chopping and after he did not get a reasonable explanation for committing the offence, he took a kitchen knife and stabbed the deceased, causing his death.