Justice Rishi Persaud sentenced a man to 15 years imprisonment yesterday for the ice pick stabbing death of another man during Mashramani celebrations in 2002.
A Berbice Assizes jury had returned a verdict of guilty last Friday.
Sheldon Adams was on trial for the stabbing death of Shawn Britton on March 3, 2002.
According to the facts of the case, Britton and his friends were standing at the gate of the New Amsterdam Technical Institute (NATI) during a Republic anniversary celebration when a scuffle broke out between him and Adams. Adams reportedly whipped out the ice-pick from the waistband of his pants and stabbed Britton. The wounded man ran a short distance away from Adams then collapsed. He was pronounced dead on arrival at the New Amsterdam Hospital.
An eyewitness, Randolph Wilson, testified that while some persons were disembarking from his taxi at the NATI he saw the accused and the deceased in a scuffle that lasted for a few minutes. Wilson said he saw Adams pull the instrument from his waistband. He also said he was about 12 feet away from the scene and he saw Adams’s face from a lit lamp on the gate.
A post-mortem examination performed by Dr Bridgemohan proved that Britton died as a result of stab wounds to his chest.
State Prosecutor Leron Daly told the court that the act was senseless and asked that there be no leniency, since there were no mitigating factors that could possibly give Adams a reason for committing the offence.
Justice Persaud said he took into consideration that Adams has shown absolutely no remorse and that the offence is prevalent in the society. The judge agreed that the evidence showed no mitigating factors and that the act was indeed senseless.
Adams, dressed in a long-sleeved, light brown shirt and matching pants, showed no emotion when the sentence was handed down.
