25 years for manslaughter

Kenneth Samuel and Mwatta Wynne were colleagues in the same storeroom where they worked. Just after lunch at Arnos Vale on April 22, 2004, they were joking with about Wynne’s girl friend.

Samuel, 37, began a 25-year-old jail term last Wednesday, but the sentence takes into account his arrest on the day of the incident. {{more}}

Justice Frederick Bruce-Lyle awaited a psychiatric report before sentencing. Samuel pleaded not guilty to murder, but guilty to manslaughter at the Assizes last week Tuesday, June 7.

Wynne succumbed to cutlass injuries in that mid-day skirmish.

Samuel was guided in his remarks by defense counsel Nicole Sylvester who described the affair as “extremely unfortunate.”

Sylvester disclosed background checks revealed that Samuel’s mother and other family members spent time at the mental Asylum.

She looked at Samuel’s act as “aberration,” that he had been “remorseful.”

Sylvester continued her plea on Samuel’s behalf highlighting Dr. Debnath’s report that “any sudden hard blow with a blunt weapon or even fist, or back of the neck or head may cause a nervous reflex to make a person confused suddenly and temporarily.”

Justice Bruce-Lyle noted that Samuel had no previous convictions, and that he pleaded guilty. He however pointed to aggravating features in that Samuel chopped Wynne three times.