Teenager jailed for 17 years for almost beheading his friend

A BESPECTACLED Royston McAllister had partially severed the head of his friend Steffern Andrew Noel Bacchus as he sat putting on his shoe on a stairway at Crabwood Creek, Corentyne.

And on Wednesday, he was sentenced to 7 years imprisonment by Judge Dawn Gregory-Barnes at the Berbice Assizes.
Prior to the slaying, the teenagers, then 17, had left their Korthbaadt Village home , East Bank Berbice, for Jackson Creek, Corentyne, where they were employed at Mary’s Cane Farm as cane harvesters.
State Prosecutrix Ms. Renita Singh had revealed that on November 9, 2011, the lads, in company with others, had finished working at midday and had returned to their camp to prepare their lunch.
Then, Bacchus had rebuked his childhood friend for not assisting with the cleaning of the ‘logie’, in which they lived, and had threatened to put ‘Martindale’[a cutlass] on him.
After McAllister was slapped and laughed at, Bacchus grabbed a broom and swept the building before smoking a cigarette and retiring to his room.
At 14:45hrs, witness Darrel Brandham recalled knocking on the door of Bacchus’ room, telling him that it was time to get up.
Bacchus responded by exiting his room and sat on the stairway of his ‘logie’ where he begun to put on his shoe.
The witness, thereafter, went to McAllister’s door, where he said, ‘Wake Up, Work time’.
Brandham, then sat on the rail of the ‘logie’ stairway fixing his shoe, when he heard a loud sound as if one was being broadsided with a cutlass.
He looked to where Bacchus was sitting and noticed him, ‘rolling’ down the steps.
At the time McAllister was standing at the top of the stairway, with a cutlass in his hand.
In the caution statement, McAllister said he got annoyed after he awoke and Bacchus continued to tease him. As a result he got ‘vex and got in a passion’.
A post mortem revealed that Bacchus was an adolescent of mixed ancestry with finely plaited hair. He succumbed to shock and haemorrhage. Defence Counsel Charrandas Persaud, in a plea of mitigation , said his client had no intention to kill his friend and has since expressed remorse over the incident.
Meanwhile, Justice Gregory- Barnes noted that having perused the evidence from the deposition, the caution statement, the mitigation and the medical report, she observed that the now deceased was sitting, putting on his boots when he was attacked.
‘There is no knife, nor provocation at the time, this has caused me to view this case more severely. I will start with twenty five years, as it is the term for the penalty [manslaughter]. ’
“I reduce it by six years for your plea of guilty’, and a further two years for the duration spent as a remanded prisoner. I am not inclined to take any more time off. The injury inflicted and the circumstances are aggravating factors. You are sentenced to 17 years imprisonment”, the Judge pronounced.
The convict stood with a slight grin on his face as the sentence was passed, while relatives and villagers sighed with relief.

(By Jeune Bailey)