Tramangra Williams called ‘Queenie’ was yesterday found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to 18 years imprisonment by Justice Navindra Singh.
Williams, 27, a mother of two, was before the court charged with the murder of her Bajan boyfriend Tyrone McDonald Best in 2008.
The mixed jury, after deliberating for four hours returned with a verdict of not guilty of murder, but guilty of the lesser count of manslaughter.
In handing down the sentence, Justice Navindra Singh started with 30 years; he took 6 years
off for provocation and another 6 years off for remorse. The state’s case was presented by Senior State Counsel Judith Gildharie-Mursalin.
In a mitigation plea, defence attorney Peter Hugh asked for leniency, stating that the accused is 27, with two small children. Hugh and attorney Latchmie Rahamat appear-ed for the accused.
When asked if she wanted to say anything, Williams said she was sorry and that she never intended for him to die. She also said that she wished she could bring him back.
On Tuesday, when called to lead her defence, Williams had told the court that Best ran into the knife she was using to keep him at bay during a confrontation.
In her caution statement, which was read to the court last Friday by Police Inspector Nolan Burnett, Williams had said that after the argument escalated between the two and she told Best she was going to the police station to make a report, he picked up a shoe and threw it at her. “I was going down the stairway and he face me and he pick up one of his shoes and pelt it in my face. I had a knife in my hand and I turned around and I barely pushed the knife towards him and he got bore in his stomach,” she said in the statement.
Earlier in the trial, Kenneth Webster had testified that he saw Williams with a knife in her hand and that she appeared to be hugging Best but when she moved away he saw the knife sticking out of the left side of Best’s chest.
According to reports, initial investigations indicated that Best, who lived at Section ‘D,’ South Sophia, was the victim of an armed robbery. However, as police continued their investigations, Williams, also of South Sophia, was arrested and subsequently charged with the murder of Best.
Best died on January 3, 2009, while a patient of the Georgetown Public Hospital. He had been hospitalised there after being stabbed in his abdomen on December 27.
Government Pathologist Dr Nehaul Singh on Monday had testified that he performed a post-mortem examination on January 12, 2009 on Best, who died from haemorrhaging and shock as a result of perforation of the liver caused by a stab wound. Singh also said that the deceased had an incised wound on the lower right chest which was several days old.
