The murder trial in which Eric Sookchine was indicted for killing his wife was halted yesterday by Justice Brassington Reynolds at the Berbice Assizes after the prisoner confessed to committing the crime which resulted in the death of Jashoda who was eight weeks pregnant.
The post-mortem report revealed that the mother of three had succumbed to shock and haemorrhage due to stab wounds to her heart.
Sookchine, a cane harvester, however, escaped a possible conviction and death sentence on the capital offence by pleading guilty to the lesser count which was accepted by the State.
The change of heart followed an attempt by the State to make an application under Section 95 of the Criminal Law Offences Act in a bid to have the evidence of a juvenile tendered.
Following an adjournment for about forty-five minutes when consultations were held between State Prosecutor Dionne Mc Cammon and Senior Counsel Marcel Crawford, the prisoner was advised to adopt the course which would spare him from the gallows.
The remanded prisoner was facing a second trial after the previous one had been aborted due to approaches to a member or members of the jury panel by persons reportedly connected to him on November 5, 2009.
Sookchine while being armed with a cutlass slaughtered his wife who was found motionless on her kitchen floor with her clothing having what appeared to be blood stains on June 5, 2005.
The murder weapon was found a short distance from the body.
The daughter of the accused had related to the court that her parents were fighting prior to her mother’s demise on June 3, 2005.
The minor, now thirteen years old, recalled being sent to purchase cigarettes for her father and on her return home she saw the lifeless body of her mother.
Vidawattie Narine, mother of the deceased, had related that during a telephone conversation with her daughter and son-in-law on the night prior to the incident, the deceased related that her husband was threatening to kill her and hang himself.
Her daughter, she said, had left the matrimonial home and her children for a month, returning a week before her death.
Meanwhile, Justice Reynolds adjourned sentencing pending a probation report and plea in mitigation on August 19.
