(Trinidad Guardian) A woman who admitted to arranging the murder of her friend and stealing her newborn baby is expected to be sentenced next month.
The sentencing hearing for Kerry-Ann Hosang was expected to take place at the Hall of Justice in Port-of-Spain yesterday, but it had to be postponed as a bio-social report on her conduct while in prison was not yet complete.
Justice Althea Alexis-Windsor, who previously stated that she wanted to complete the sentencing before the 2019/2020 Law Term term opens in September, agreed to adjourn the case to August 5.
Hosang was initially before Alexis-Windsor charged with murdering 28-year-old Reena Kissoon, but on July 3, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) agreed to allow her to plead guilty to felony murder.
Under the felony murder rule, judges are given the discretion to waive the mandatory death penalty in murder cases where death results in the commission of a lesser criminal offence.
According to the agreed facts in the case, that was produced through consultation with State prosecutors and Hosang’s defence attorneys, Kissoon’s body was found at her home at Phase 7, La Horquetta, Arima, on September 3, 2005. She had a chop wound to her neck which severed her trachea and damaged her spine.
Police were taken to the location by Kissoon’s friend, who had reported her and her newborn daughter missing after not hearing from them for several days.
When initially confronted by police at her home in Maracas/St Joseph several days later, Hosang claimed that she and Kissoon were close friends and that she (Kissoon) left the child with her.
Hosang claimed that she heard through the media that Kissoon had been murdered but chose not to contact the police as her family believed it was hers.
“Her rationale was that her friends and family knew she was pregnant but didn’t know she had miscarried,” the statement said.
It stated that Hosang changed her tune after investigators confronted her days later.
“I wanted Reena’s baby so I paid Rea-Ann’s boyfriend and his friend $2,300 to lick up Reena for me to take the baby,” Hosang said.
“I stayed by Reena on Independence night and early Thursday morning Rea-Ann’s boyfriend and his friend came to Reena’s home. I opened the door for them to come in. Reena was sitting on a chair and Rea-Ann’s boyfriend took out a knife and cut Reena on her neck. Reena fell to the ground and they dragged her body to a room in the back and I took Reena’s baby and we left. Three days later I found out that Reena was found dead in her home,” she added.
In a statement, which she gave to police, Hosang claimed that she knew Kissoon for six years and loaned her $5,000 in January 2005.
Hosang claimed that after Kissoon repeatedly refused to repay the sum, she paid two men to threaten her into honouring their agreement on two separate occasions.
She stated that after the two failed attempts, she decided to hire two other men to kidnap Kissoon’s baby. Hosang claimed that she planned to keep the baby until Kissoon repaid the money.
She also contended that she attempted to stop the men when they attacked Kissoon with the blade but the men instead turned on her and hit her across her face. She left $800 for them and fled with the baby.
“Kerry Ann Hosang ended her report by expressing remorse over the death of Reena Kissoon and said that she never meant for her to die and admitted she gave everyone that the baby was hers,” the statement said.
Hosang initially went on trial for the crime in 2010 but the jury could not arrive at a unanimous verdict for her and a retrial was ordered.
Hosang is being represented by Keith Scotland and Asha Watkins-Montserin, Maria Lyons-Edwards is prosecuting.
