Appellate Court reduces 57-year term to 30 years for manslaughter accused

THE Appellate Court on Wednesday set aside the 57-year prison term imposed on Clive Knights for murdering Bert Whyte and replaced it with a 30-year sentence for manslaughter.

Knights, in June 2015, was convicted by a 12-member jury and sentenced by Justice Navindra Singh for murdering his friend, Guyana and Trinidad Mutual Life (GTM) Insurance executive Bert Whyte, 44, with an icepick on May 14, 2012.

However, Chancellor of the Judiciary Yonette Cummings-Edwards and Justices of Appeal Dawn Gregory and Rishi Persaud agreed to substitute the murder charge with manslaughter.

The appeal was filed by Knights’ attorney Dexter Todd, who asked the court to reverse and/or set aside the conviction which may lead to the case being remitted to the High Court for a new trial. Todd also argued that the sentence was too severe, given the circumstances of the case.

The judges allowed the appeal and set aside the conviction and sentence. The conviction of manslaughter was instituted and a sentence of 30-years imprisonment was imposed; the time he had already served will be deducted.

Following the killing of Bert Whyte on May 14, 2012, Knights was arrested and charged with murder. The charge is said to have resulted from a caution statement which the accused gave to Detective Constable Kester Cosbert.

The statement to the detective constable read: “Keste, I reach Whyte while I was working at GPHC and we became friends and started hanging out together with other friends. On one evening that we went drinking he said that he was a homosexual and wanted us to start a relationship. I told him no, but we can still be friends and that his way of life had nothing to do with me. Whyte said that it was okay and we continued to go out and drink. Both of us left the job at the hospital and started working different places, but would call each other.

“On Monday 14th May, 2012, I travelled to Georgetown from Berbice very early to do some business and finished late. I was very tired but Whyte and I talked over the phone and decided to have a drink; we went to a bar in William Street, Campbellville. I drank a couple of beers and he drank liquor. I fell asleep about two hours on the table because I was tired and high.” The statement reads.

According to the accused, “The next thing I recognised that I was being sodomised. I grabbed an ice pick and stabbed away at Whyte. I did not intend to kill Whyte. I am sorry, he was my friend.”