Two men who were indicted for murder were yesterday sentenced to 12 years each after a jury convicted them on the lesser count of manslaughter. The sentence was handed down by Justice Winston Patterson.

Kumar Lall, 23, called ‘Blacksam’ and Ruben Williams, 34, called `Bugin’ both of Mora, Parika stood quietly in the dock when the sentence was read to them separately.

Justice Patterson told both men that he had taken into consideration the fact that they have already spent three-plus years in prison; that before this they didn’t have a brush with the law and that he had also keenly taken into consideration the circumstances of the case and the fact that Williams has five children and a wife.

The two men were who were charged on July 29, 2005 for the murder of Michael Reid, were committed to stand trial in the High Court on April 8th of this year by Magistrate Fazil Azeez at the Leonora Magistrate’s court.

According to the prosecution’s facts, Williams who is the number two defendant and Reid had an argument in Reid’s rum shop when Williams told Reid “about his mother” and pointed his fingers in his face.

Reid took a bottle and hit Williams in his face and he fell to the ground. Reid continued to stab Williams in his face at which time the number two defendant, Lall, who is Williams’ nephew, came into the shop.

He saw what was happening to his uncle and picked up a piece of wood and started to hit Reid about the body including the head.

He then handed over the wood to Williams who continued to hit the man about the body.

The prosecution contended that Lall could have disarmed Reid by hitting him in some other body part and that both men intended to kill Reid or cause serious bodily harm to the man when they continued to hit him even after he was unarmed.  The post-mortem examination showed that Reid died as a result of four fractures to his skull and had also sustained a number of broken ribs.

The state was represented by attorney-at-law Dionne McCammon in association with Kara Yehudah-Duff, while attorney-at-law Hukumchand in association with Kamini Parag represented the accused.