Following the hearing off his appeal, the Guyana Court of Appeal yesterday morning set aside Clive Knights’ conviction for the murder of insurance company executive Bert Whyte, substituting it instead with a conviction of manslaughter and imposing a sentence of 30 years.
On June 18th, 2015, Knights had been sentenced by trial judge Navindra Singh, to 57 years behind bars after a jury found him guilty of murdering Whyte, who died after being stabbed twice to the chest on May 14th, 2012.
In a ruling delivered by acting Chancellor Yonette Cummings-Edwards, who heard the matter along with appeal judges Rishi Persaud and Dawn Gregory, the court heard that Justice Singh’s summation to the jury regarding a confession statement Knights gave to police was not adequate.
The court ruled that proper directions ought to have been given to the jury as to how it needed to treat with the caution statement and not just be left open to the panel.
The chancellor informed that the capital conviction would be substituted for that of manslaughter and that remission be made for time Knights has so far spent behind bars.
In his appeal, the convict had contended that his trial lawyer failed to present his defence or did not adequately represent the issues surrounding an alleged caution statement. For such reasons, that appellant regarded his conviction as being unsafe, while contending that a jury properly directed might not have arrived at the same decision.
At the close of the trial in the High Court, Knights’ attorney, Konyo Thompson had asked the jury to be mindful that an offence had been committed on Knights’ person, making reference to claims her client made in his caution statement of Whyte sexually assaulting him.
She had emphasized the state’s failure to disprove that it wasn’t a case of Knights acting in self-defence to Whyte’s homosexual advances of which her client wanted no part.
The state’s case against the convict was that he had stabbed Whyte twice in the chest at Bentinck Street, South Cummingsburg.
It was also stated that Knights had changed the licence plate on Whyte’s car before making his way to Berbice, where the vehicle was later found abandoned.
After being stabbed, Whyte had managed to make his way to night spot, Palm Court and called out for someone to take his phone and call an ambulance. He then collapsed. He was subsequently placed in a taxi and taken to hospital.
Pathologist Dr Nehaul Singh had confirmed that Whyte had died from haemorrhage and shock due the perforation of the heart and lungs as a result of the stab wounds he sustained.
Whyte, who was 44 at the time of his death, had been the personnel manager at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation for 10 years before taking up the position of Assistant Company Secretary at the GTM insurance company, where he had been working for six months prior to his death.
The state was represented in the appeal by Prosecutor Stacy Goodings, while Knights was represented by defence attorneys Dexter Todd and Adrian Smith.
