On trial for the murder of his brother-in-law Terrence Adams, Les Charles Critchlow yesterday told the court that he would no longer be going through with the trial—instead accepting responsibility for the killing.
In the circumstances, he was re-arraigned.
Critchlow would then plead not guilty to the capital charge on which he had been indicted, but pleaded to the lesser offence of manslaughter.
He accepted that on May 12th, 2016 at Haslington, East Coast Demerara he unlawfully killed Adams.
Justice Priya Sewnarine-Beharry has, however, deferred sentencing until November 24th to facilitate the presentation of a probation report on Critchlow.
The offender had been on trial before a jury at the High Court in Georgetown.
In her opening address on Monday, Prosecutor Tiffini Lyken had said that on the night in question Critchlow went into Adams’ shop at Haslington and stabbed him in what she described as an “unprovoked and vicious” attack.
Brother of the deceased Leyland Nelson who testified had recalled Adams having a conversation with the accused earlier on the day in question about money which he (Critchlow) owed to Adams.
Critchlow’s daughter-in-law Shellon Marks and his reputed wife Janice Nelson had both also testified of arguments between the two men and they had corroborated each other’s account of seeing Critchlow leaving the home on the night in question with a knife stashed in the waist of his pants.
Janice had said that given certain remarks Critchlow had earlier made regarding her brother (the deceased), she told Marks to place a call to him (Adams) informing him to be safe, as Critchlow had left the yard with a knife.
In her testimony Marks had said that she did try to make the call but was unsuccessful as the Digicel network was down at the time.
The cause of Adams’ death had been given as multiple incised wounds.
According to reports, Adams was at his shop when Critchlow visited and an argument ensued.
An eyewitness had related to this newspaper that the two men were arguing about some work that Critchlow was contracted to do at Janice’s residence that Adams thought was not properly done.
Janice had told the court about this in her testimony.
The eyewitness related that after the argument ensued, Adams related to the man that it was not the place to speak about the issue and told him that they would talk about it in the morning at the job site.
However, the eyewitness had said, “Les din wan hear that and he start to bad up and start telling Uncle Terry (the deceased) bout wuh he gon do he,” prompting Adams to tell the man to leave his shop.
The aggravated man then pulled a knife from his waist and stabbed Adams in his lower abdomen.
“After he [Adams] get stab, he run about 50 meters and fall down,” the witness related, while stating that after Adams ran away Critchlow raced in the opposite direction.
