“So you think you can spend the rest of your life in prison?” Justice Winston Patterson asked a manslaughter defendant minutes before sentencing him to 18 years imprisonment yesterday.
On Monday Chaitram Singh, a 45-year-old fish vendor, pleaded guilty to manslaughter. His guilty plea came after several witnesses, including his son had already testified in his murder trial. It was during his son’s testimony that the man admitted he killed his wife Eileen Lall on February 6, 2007.
Eileen and Chaitram had been together for over two decades. Their union produced five children ages 24, 22, 20, 10 and 9, Humkumchand told the court. This, he said, was proof that despite the troubles between the couple there was definitely love between them.
Prior to her demise, court records reflect, Eileen and the defendant had been living apart for three months following a series of misunderstandings. The woman was renting a bedroom at Fourth Street, Herstelling, East Bank Demerara a short distance away from where she’d lived with her husband.
Their two youngest children had been staying with Eileen and the others had remained with Chaitram. On the day of the stabbing Eileen and her sister Anita Lall went to the Farm Squatting Area in search of work.
Her sister, Anita testified, worked as a domestic and that day they went to the house of Ramdan’s mother-in-law in search of work. While there, Anita told the court, Chaitram came to the Farm Squatting Area house in search of Eileen. The victim, Anita said, was forced to hide in a cupboard. During this confrontation, Anita told the court, she saw what appeared to be a knife tucked in the waist of Chaitram’s trousers.
Later as she and Eileen walked back to Herstelling, Anita testified. Chaitram accosted her sister on the street and started pulling and tugging at her demanding that she go with him. However, the couple’s son Ramdan who was in the vicinity at the time spoke with his father and told him to leave his mother alone.
Ramdan then proceeded to follow his mother all the way to the Herstelling home where Eileen and his two younger siblings lived. The man then left his mother and aunt and went to talk with some friends at the street corner.
Some time after the man left his father showed up at the Herstelling house and another confrontation ensued. Anita told the court that at this point she sent the man away and told him to give Eileen some time to “cool off”. The woman then padlocked the gate to the Fourth Street, Herstelling home and left her sister.
During his testimony Shaheed Mohammed, a shop owner who lives next door to the house where Eileen was staying, said that he heard the screaming, ran out to the road and saw Chaitram running away with what appeared to be blood on his hands.
Ramdan, in his testimony, said that he saw his father running towards him with what looked like a blood covered knife in his hands. The man told the court that he was afraid and put some distance between himself and his father. Shortly after, Ramdan went to the Providence Police Station after he found out what had happened to his mother.
Eileen’s landlady Ruby, who is now deceased, witnessed the woman’s killing. In her statement to police she related seeing Chaitram come into the house, force his way into Eileen’s bedroom, and a short time later when she turned around she saw the woman covered in blood and heard her crying out to her husband that he’d killed her.
Chaitram was arrested by police two days after leaving his wife with seven stab wounds about the body in the Herstelling house, Lead Prosecutor Judith Mursalin-Gildharie told the court.
While he does not condone the use of a weapon to solve a problem, Hukumchand pointed out, the fact must not be overlooked that persons can be provoked to do just such a thing.
Hukumchand also told the court that the couple’s minors should not be denied for too long the only parent they have left.
He continued to list and expand on the principles of sentencing stressing that a minimum sentence should be applied. The attorney pleaded with the court for mercy on behalf of his client and stated that Chaitram was not a bad man.
His sister-in-law Anita Lall and his fellow villager Bibi Shakoor who had known him all his life, Hukumchand pointed out, said that he was a good man, usually listened to advice and they didn’t know what happened to him the day he attacked his wife.
“You cut up
your wife…”
After listening to Hukumchand’s mitigation plea Justice Patterson asked the defendant to stand.
He said that when Anita Lall sent him (Chaitram) away she had given him an opportunity to “cool down” and this was something he refused to take. He made the decision to go back to Eileen’s house in his provoked state.
“You cut up your wife, the mother of your children,” the judge told Chaitram later adding that, “You didn’t stab her one time, not two time, not three times, not four times, not five times, not six times but seven times.”
Eileen, court records reflect, was stabbed to the back, the right side of her chest, the right breast, under the arm, the thigh and other parts of the body. Chaitram, the judge said, chopped his wife as if he were jerking beef for sale.
The fact that Chaitram is the father of two minor children, as was pointed out by Hukumchand in his mitigation plea, and his age were taken into consideration by the court during sentencing, Justice Patterson said.
He told Chaitram that he is still a young man and after he would’ve served his sentence he will be a mature individual.
At least, the judge pointed out, his children will have the satisfaction of knowing that he is alive and will be able to visit him in prison. However, they have been forever denied the love of their mother.
No human ought to snuff out the life of another, the judge stressed. He then asked Chaitram whether he thought that he would be able to spend the rest of his life in prison.
“No sir,” was all the defendant muttered several times.
Justice Patterson then sentenced Chaitram to 18 years prison time and told him that at the end of that time he will still have a chance at life. He also pointed out to the defendant that he’d put his son Ramdan Singh in much pain. It was very difficult, Justice Patterson said, for a son to have to testify against his father for killing his mother.
“Use your time in prison to reflect on what you have done,” the judge said.