Kurt Christopher Wong, a father of four who stabbed his wife to death in March 2005, was handed a 15-year sentence yesterday.
Wong, 37, formerly employed as a security guard by GuyMine, had appeared before Justice James Bovell-Drakes on May 22, 2009 and offered a guilty plea to manslaughter, having pleaded not guilty to the capital charge of murder. Wong’s plea was accepted by state prosecutors Prithima Kissoon and Dianna Boyan. The judge had ordered a probation report and adjourned the matter for sentencing yesterday.
Defence attorney Joan Ward-Mars had attempted to convince the court that Wong should not be given a “heavy sentence,” because he had already spent more than four years in prison, suffered from “battered persons syndrome” (BPS) up to the time of the incident and should be allowed to be in the lives of his four children. The defendant was represented by Ward-Mars, in association with Liza Maria Hanoman.
Justice Bovell-Drakes, in his final remarks to the defendant, said the fact that Wong will not be released from prison until his children are in their adult lives is not the fault of the court but is to blamed on his “irresponsible, unreasonable and senseless conduct” on 4 March, 2005, when he stabbed his wife Rhonda Wong 17 times about the body.
The use of weapons to settle domestic conflicts, the judge stressed, is not acceptable. Those who appear before the court for using weapons on their spouse, mate, relative or any person will be treated severely, Justice Bovell-Drakes said.
“Whenever you come before us for using a weapon to settle a domestic dispute we will hand you a very serious punishment,” Justice Bovell-Drakes said. “I want the public, especially those not in this courtroom to know, that using weapons on each other to settle domestic conflicts is not acceptable.”
On 4 March, 2005, legal reports say that Wong returned to his Blueberry Hill home from work at approximately 2 pm and found the house locked with his four sons gone. Wong later showed up at Rhonda’s workplace and enquired about the children’s whereabouts. After settling the matter he went out to celebrate with a group of friends.
Approximately one hour later, Wong left the celebration and returned home. He had told the court that he saw his wife eating Chinese food and spoke to her. The conversation became an argument and Wong alleged that Rhonda went for a knife. The man and wife wrestled. Wong said he tried to disarm her. Rhonda was pushed into their children’s bedroom where she spent the last minutes of her life.
A post-mortem examination conducted on the woman’s body by Doctor Nehaul Singh had revealed that Rhonda Wong was stabbed 17 times to the chest, back and head. The wound, Singh’s report had said, were inflicted by an object 10 centimeters (cm) in length and 2 cm in width. Further, the report showed that there was no food in the woman’s stomach.
Justice Bovell-Drakes pointed out that, contrary to what Wong said, food should have been in the woman’s stomach if she was eating shortly before her demise.
“You were so angry that you couldn’t control yourself,” Justice Bovell-Drakes told the defendant. “This is a complex case…the trauma and psychological scars suffered by the children will have to be endured for life. While I accept that you are remorseful for what you have done I do not have a different opinion of you…the use of weapons to settle domestic conflicts is not acceptable and I hope that during your time in prison you have therapy. I am sentencing you to 15 years.”
Wong listened quietly as the judge addressed and finally sentenced him. He accepted his punishment without a display of emotion. He was only visibly upset, shedding tears, when the fate of his four sons was discussed.
Floyd Rudder, Senior Probation and Social Services Officers, while reading his office’s report ordered by the court said that Wong left school at the age of 15 and began doing odd jobs. Wong, Rudder said, grew up not knowing his biological father who took no interest in his upbringing.
Wong was a member of a disciplined force and should have been able to exercise some restraint. Before the killing of Rhonda, Rudder said, the defendant had appeared before the Christianburg Magistrates’ Court charged with assault causing actually bodily harm, and he was fined $500.
Ward-Mars described the facts of the case as “unequivocal” and stated that at the time of the incident Wong was gainfully employed; he was a man dedicated to the family and did most of the household chores.
Recalling the testimony of one witness, who lived 10 feet away from the Wongs’ Lot 133 Blueberry Hill, Wismar Linden home, Ward-Mars said that the two could be heard almost every night for three years arguing and they were doing this on March 4, 2005 as well.
Wong, according to the defence attorney, suffered years of “psychological abuse and public taunting” which in our “patriarchal society where sub-cultural norms still exist” caused the defendant “repeated public humiliation and emasculation which could be psychologically devastating.”
However, the probation investigations did not find Wong as an abusive spouse or father. Rather, as his attorney said, he was assaulted on three occasions by Rhonda and suffered continuous psychological abuse.
The attorney said that Sergeant Floyd Lewis, a witness in the case, testified that Wong complained of “betrayal and infidelity.” While these factors, Ward-Mars said, do not excuse her client’s conduct they resulted in Wong suffering BPS (which she described as “a series of common characteristics that appear in persons who are physically and/or psychologically abused over an extended period of time by a mate or someone who owes the person a special duty of concern or respect”). Characteristics displayed by those suffering BPS, Wards-Mars contended, have caused persons to suffer mental breakdowns triggered by altercations, in this case, between Wong and his mate.
Wong, the attorney said, suffered such a breakdown and at the time he killed Rhonda he was in that dangerous gray area between sanity and insanity. The defendant, according to Ward-Mars, faced years of taunting about being sexually inadequate and insulted in ways that directly attacked his masculinity.
“An eye for and eye,” Ward-Mars said while imploring the court to be lenient with her client, “makes the whole world blind.”
