Delon Reynolds, 23, called ‘Fatboy’ who was on trial for the murder of George Bacchus and pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter was yesterday sentenced to 10 years imprisonment by Justice Claudette La Bennett.
After hearing arguments by state prosecutor Judy Latchman and defence attorney Peter Hugh, Justice La Bennett told the accused that although he might be remorseful over his actions a life was lost and he must do the time for his crime.
Before the sentencing, Latchman asked the judge to take into consideration Reynolds’ tender age, and the fact that he had already spent four years in prison. These sentiments were echoed by Hugh when he addressed the court. The attorney who has represented Reynolds since his first arraignment in the high court, pleaded with the judge to be lenient with his client who prior to this had had no previous brushes with law. He asked the judge to give his client a sentence that would allow him to come back out into the world and make a life for himself while he was still young.
Reynolds then signalled to his attorney that he wanted to say something. After conferring with Reynolds, Hugh told the court that he was instructed that Reynolds was very remorseful for his actions and was willing to deal with the consequences of those actions. The lawyer then further told the court that it should also take into consideration the circumstances surrounding Reynolds’ actions. “In my view he was a pawn …manipulated by other persons, nevertheless he is sorry for what he did,” Hugh said.
Justice La Bennett then told the accused that while he is sorry and has thrown himself at the mercy of the court his crime is a very serious matter. She said however that there are certain benefits when a person pleads guilty. She told Reynolds that she has taken into consideration his age, the length of time he has spent in prison and the fact that he was not the sole actor in this crime. She then sentenced him to 10 years imprisonment to which Reynolds replied “thank you your honour.”
The murder trial was nearing its end when Reynolds indicated through his attorney that he wished to take a certain course of action. He then pleaded guilty to manslaughter of the self-professed death squad informant, Bacchus.
The prosecution’s case in the trial had rested solely on the caution statement which had already been read to the jury by retired Superinten-dent of Police Charles Alleyne who had witnessed the statement.
In the statement Reynolds had said that he was offered $200,000 to kill Bacchus called `Bombalay’ by a woman who said he was making things difficult for her husband. The statement said that Reynolds told the woman that he was afraid of Bacchus since he would threaten to kill him when anything went missing in the house and once he had tied him around the neck and taken him to the burial ground and threatened to kill him.
The statement went on to say that Reynolds collected a gun from an accomplice of the woman and then went to a Chinese restaurant and hid the gun by the fence.
He then collected the gun and went to 76 Princes Street and hid it in a rubbish bin at the front of the yard. He then went to sleep in the shed at the back of the yard and woke up around 2:45 am and collected the gun from the bin. The statement read: “I start to walk round and round the yard. I go up the front step and climb up on the banister. I push me hand with the gun through the front window and point same where George Bacchus been sleeping and fire three rounds. I close me eyes when I fire the gun. I then jump on the back step and run to the back of the yard where I hid the gun under a coconut shell in the mould pond.” The statement continued that Reynolds ran to call `Rice’ and told him that somebody “shoot up `Bombalay’”
Farmhand Raymond Legall called ‘Rice’ had testified to this effect. He had told the court that ‘Fatman’ had come calling for him and they had run back to 76 Princes Street, gotten Bacchus’s nephew Derrick Prince from his room at the back of the house and gone into Bacchus’s bedroom where they found him covered, except for the left side of his face where Legall said that he noticed a spot of blood under his left eye. Prince picked up Bacchus’s hand and held it straight in the air and it fell down heavily. They had all left the room at his urging, Legall testified.
Constable Michael Phillips testified that he had taken Reynolds to the Bacchus residence to look for the gun that he said he had used to kill Bacchus. The weapon was recovered in a dump box at the back of the house, and Reynolds allegedly told Phillips, “this is the gun I used to kill George Bacchus.”
Bacchus’s killing had come amid a series of sensational statements about the activities of a death squad and its links to a government minister. It led to an inquiry which cleared then Home Affairs Minister Ronald Gajraj of any involvement with it. It was believed that the death squad was formed in the wake of the 2002 jail break and was responsible for dozens of killings of suspected criminals and others.
