Latest update April 18th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jan 16, 2019 News
Admitting to Justice Navindra Singh that he stabbed his wife to death because he found her with another man, Paul Scotland was yesterday sentenced to 16 years’ imprisonment for the crime when he appeared at the High Court. Scotland who was initially indicted for murder opted to plead guilty to the lesser offence manslaughter.
He admitted that on January 3, 2014 in Demerara, he unlawfully killed Monica Adams, who was also the mother of his three children.
He also pleaded guilty to attempting to kill the woman’s brother, Charles Elliott, who went to her rescue, and in turn received a stab to his chest.
According to Prosecutor Abigail Gibbs, Scotland entered the woman’s home ignoring demands of her brother and another relative. While inside, the prosecutor said he pulled Adams by her hair and dragged her into the yard where he stabbed her about the body. Elliott went to the aid of his sister and lashed Scotland with shower
rod.
However, the peacemaker was stabbed by an enraged Scotland who later surrendered to police. Based on reports, Adams, 21, resided at Paradise, East Coast Demerara.
Her cause of death was given as severe haemorrhage. Justice Singh accepted Scotland’s plea to the manslaughter charge after he responded in the negative to having consumed any alcohol or drugs within the last 24 hours that could affect his ability of understanding the court proceedings.
Scotland told the court, “I want to apologize to the court. I am very sorry for what happened. I never meant for it to happen. It was frustration coming home and noticing my children mother with another man. I want to ask the family of the deceased to forgive me. I am begging you (the Judge) to please have mercy on me so I could go back and take care of my children.”
The confessed killer further apologized to the woman’s brother in open court.
Mitigating on behalf of Scotland was Attorney-at-law Dexter Todd who pressed the court for a minimum sentence. The lawyer asked the Judge to consider that his client opted to plead guilty and saved the court from having to conduct a trial.
According to Todd, during his client’s time in incarceration, he has had ample time to reflect on his actions.
Further, Todd asked the court to also consider that Scotland committed the offence when he was in his early twenties, adding that, his client and the now dead woman shared a “very warm” relationship.
Meanwhile, Prosecutor Gibbs asked the court to impose a sentence that will reflect the nature and gravity of the offences. In relation to the manslaughter charge, Scotland was jailed for 16 years. On the charge of attempt to commit murder, he was sentenced to imprisonment for eight years.
The Judge however ordered that the two sentences run concurrently. The Judge informed Scotland that the court will order the prison service to deduct from his sentence, the time he spent in pre-trial custody, which is some five years.
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