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JUSTICE James Bovell-Drakes has expressed disappointment that the defence, in the Colin Bentick manslaughter trial, did not present relatives of the convict, so that the court can have a holistic analysis of the Bentick case. Consequently, the judge who is still to pronounce sentence in the case, has adjourned further hearing to June 18.
Before that, attorney-at-law Mr. Perry Gossai, holding the brief for Mr. Mursulene Bacchus, submitted, in a mitigation plea, that confinement at the National Psychiatric Hospital would have been in best interest of the prisoner, who had displayed several bouts of aggression and was on treatment for that prior to and during his incarceration.
Asked whether he thought Bentick failed society by his actions, or that society failed him despite several reports made to the police, Gossai said:”There is no doubt that he was taking psychiatric treatment until 2006, coupled with the use of illegal drugs, no one rescued him.
“His mental condition took a better part of him. He claimed that the woman he was living with had an affair with the now deceased,” counsel said, about the prisoner.
Gossai expressed the view that quick action by the relevant authorities could have avoided the incident for which Bentick is remorseful.
”Throwing himself at the mercy of the court is an act of remorse. He apparently has now realised what he has done. A life has been lost but compassion must be shown. Let leniency be the premise on the court’s compassion,” the lawyer pleaded.
LESSER COUNT
Thirty-eight-year-old Bentick called ‘Fireman’, who was, initially, indicted for murder, pleaded guilty to the lesser count of manslaughter and it was accepted by the State.
He beheaded fellow villager Elon Shepherd, because of the latter’s lifestyle.
Last June 6, Justice Bovell-Drakes had granted an adjournment after commending lawyer Bacchus, who had lamented that he was handicapped, because although he made several requests for family members of the prisoner to visit his chambers they did not.
That same day, Senior Probation Officer, Mr. Kenneth Nunes presented his report on the convict’s background.
He reported that the dreadlocked man was the lone product of the union between Muriel Bentick and Stanley Jonas, who, then, had shared a visiting relationship but now reside overseas separately, having become involved in separate matrimonial unions that have yielded several other adult children.
The convict, after his birth at Linden, spent a short time with his mother, before being placed in the care and custody of his maternal grandparents, who fostered him with financial support from his biological parents, Nunes related.
His research established that Bentick, being the recipient of a sound primary education, was propelled into the interior of Guyana where he secured a stable financial status. However, he allowed illicit drugs to obliterate his once calm disposition and that may have contributed to his aggressive and violent outbursts.
There is evidence to suggest that he may have been mentally unstable even before this wanton act of destruction of human life, which was a graphic beheading of the victim in full view of primary schoolchildren and persons at home, Nunes said.
He said the commission of the crime has had negative effects on not only the victim’s household but the psyche of both the old and the young even at the time of the investigation.
Nunes observed that, although Bentick was admitted to the Psychiatric Ward of Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) and secured some treatment, there was no evidence to suggest any continuity of care and treatment which is readily available at any medical institution in Guyana.
Checks at the Georgetown Psychiatric Clinic revealed no follow- up visits or any dispensation of psychiatric medication to Bentick since his discharge from that institution in 2003, the court was told.
SEVERAL BOUTS
Nunes said information from the District Police Station suggested that several reports were made against the accused, about his aggressive and threatening behaviour towards other persons in the neighbourhood and it was also revealed that, during the time the prisoner was incarcerated, he demonstrated several bouts of aggressive conduct and had to be restrained and sedated.
Currently, however, he is in receipt of medication from a prominent psychiatrist at the New Amsterdam Prison.
The prisoner had spent his childhood days in Linden Town but since age five until his incarceration, he resided at West Coast Berbice. Having left the Lichfield Primary School, he was unable to acquire any notable qualification.
So, he became involved in gold mining which took him in and out of Guyana’s interior and after acquiring enough finance, the accused established his own small grocery and ground provisions business. He was also involved in vegetable farming in the community and admitted being a frequent user of cannabis (marijuana).
With respect to his attitude to the offence, Nunes said his vivid explanation of what transpired on that dreadful day was formidable. It was also noted that during the interview, he displayed little remorse.
Collaborative efforts by family members in not ensuring that Bentick received adequate psychiatric evaluation and possible medication may have contributed to him not conducting himself in a more civil and humane manner and this, in turn, may have prevented the committal of the offence, Nunes speculated.
Nevertheless, it was a brutal and heinous crime and should not be condoned by society, the Probation Officer said.
PLAYING DOMINOES
State Prosecutor, Rhondel Weaver, relating the facts, said, on October 31, 2007, a group of persons, including the victim and the star witness, Kinte Reynolds, were sitting beneath an old house playing dominoes at Seafield Village, West Coast Berbice.
She said Reynolds knew Bentick for more than 14 years, prior to the tragedy.
Sometime, between 12:00 hrs and 13:00 hrs, that day, the killer went up to the victim and said, in the hearing of Reynolds that ‘Shepherd is a dead man’.
Bentick then asked Shepherd whether he knew about the former’s girlfriend but the latter replied in the negative.
Bentick then took a cutlass and chopped Shepherd on his right hand and, at that stage, Reynolds ran away and did not see what followed.
The prosecutor said, another witness, who is a relative of the convict and two police officers, standing some distance off said they saw Bentick chopping someone, in a continuous manner, with a cutlass.
More importantly, she said, the two police witnesses were among the party of policemen in a Force vehicle that was passing the village on the way to Georgetown, when they were stopped and alerted to the ensuing incident by a passerby.
The two police witnesses responded by entering the street of the incident on foot and saw Bentick chopping at a person lying in the street, the prosecutor said.
According to her, the ranks ordered the chopper to ’Stop, police, stop’ but Bentick refused to comply and when approached from a distance, of about twenty-six feet, by one of the officers, he advanced with the murder weapon in hand, causing the policeman to retreat and leave the scene to get assistance.
Another rank remained some way off from Bentick until Detective Corporal Winston Singh arrived with reinforcements and arrested the assailant.
However, before his arrest, Bentick had severed the head of Shepherd from his body and held it up in his left hand before throwing it to the ground.
ORAL ADMISSION
Upon being apprehended and the murder allegation put to him by Detective Corporal Singh, who cautioned him, Bentick replied:”I did chop and cut off Shepherd’s head.”
In the oral admission, Bentick said he was under a house with some individuals where he learnt that Shepherd was a homosexual.
He said he took a spiff (smoked marijuana), went home for a cutlass and returned under the house.
Bentick said ‘Fireman’ attempted to run and he chopped him on his left hand, left shoulder, head and two feet and he fell.
The admission quoted him as saying: “I chopped him on his neck, chop after chop. Then I roll it off. I had to do a sacrifice.”
In his report, Government Pathologist, Dr. Vivikanand Brijmohan said Shepherd, 38, died from shock and haemorrhage, due to severance of the neck along with multiple wounds.
The registered medical practitioner said the deceased was a healthy male of African descent when he succumbed to his injuries on October 31, 2007.
