JUSTICE Brassington Reynolds has, on Friday, ordered a probation report on manslaughter convict Chares Anthony Woolford after a Demerara assizes jury found him not guilty of killing his wife Latoya, but guilty of the lesser count of manslaughter.

The probation report is expected to be presented on June 30th, when Justice Reynolds would impose sentence on the manslaughter convict who claimed he had caught his wife at home in a compromising position with a man named Andy.

A witness from Texas, USA testified that, when she was in Guyana, Andy had been a visitor to the Woolford home, but when questioned by Prosecutrix Miss Mercedes Thompson, it was discovered that this witness did not know Andy’s surname. This resulted in the prosecutrix concluding “that is because this particular Andy does not exist.”

On resumption of the trial on Friday, Justice Reynolds summed up the evidence to the jury in just over two hours. After spending three hours deliberating, the jury returned to the court room for further direction in relation to the mystery man ‘Andy’ and the two small children of the deceased, who had not been called to give evidence.

When the jury returned to deliver its verdict, the foreman kept looking to a certain member of the jury for guidance. He told the registrar that the accused was not guilty of murder and not guilty of manslaughter, but had to be reminded by one of his colleagues on the panel that, for manslaughter, the verdict was a majority of 11 to one guilty.

This caused the judge to point out that he did not appreciate what was going on, and he advised the jury to further retire and then come back with its verdict. They retired as advised, but within 15 minutes, they returned with a not-guilty verdict in relation to the offence of murder and a majority verdict of 11 to 1 guilty for the offence of manslaughter.

Woolford had gone on trial for the alleged killing of his wife Latoya on February 8, 2009. One witness, a cousin of the dead woman, who lived at the top flat, said she was attracted by screams from the children, and had rushed downstairs in time to see the woman holding her abdomen and walking away crying.

The witness said she enquired what had happened, and was told by Latoya that “Tony bore me.” Latoya later died in hospital.

Attorney-at-Law Mr. Peter Hugh will, for the defence, make a plea in mitigation on June 30th. Prosecuting for the DPP were Miss Mercedes Thompson, Miss Orinthea Schmidt and Mr. Michael Shahpoud.

By George Barclay