A Stanleytown, New Amsterdam man who was last month found guilty of manslaughter following a trial at the High Court in Berbice before Justice Brassington Reynolds, was yesterday sentenced to 15 years in prison.
In December 2018, Jermaine Barclay was charged with murdering Nkomo La Rose, 32, of Number 54 Stanleytown, New Amsterdam.
Following a trial in the High Court, Barclay was found not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter. The jury had returned with a 10 – 2 guilty verdict for manslaughter.
In the trial Barclay was represented by attorney at law, Mursaline Bacchus, while the state was represented by attorney at law, Nafeeza Baig. In 2018, a post-mortem examination revealed that La Rose, a security guard died due to a stab wound to his heart.
Residents in the area had told Stabroek News then that minutes before 5 am on December 18, they saw La Rose fighting with Barclay and another person.
“I hear Komo hollering out, ‘lef me, lef me’ and two boys stand up over he and when them neighbours run, them run get away,” a resident had stated.
La Rose, during his bid to escape, collapsed a short distance away next to a drain.
Before sentencing yesterday, a probation report presented on behalf of Barclay revealed that he was charged several times in the past and was even sentenced to three years in prison for discharging a firearm.
According to the report, Barclay maintained his innocence and claimed that the judicial system was biased towards him.
Justice Reynolds in handing down his sentence to Barclay said that the killing was a senseless and violent one.
After listening to the state attorney and defence attorney along with the fact that the jury found that he did not intend to kill La Rose, Justice Reynolds said that the sentence should be between fifteen to twenty years in prison.
He then sentenced Barclay to 15 years imprisonment, noting that a deduction for time spent on remand should be done by the prison authorities.
