Alex Matthias was last Thursday sentenced to 15 years behind bars for the 2018 Old Year’s Day stabbing death of 23-year-old Vilvoorden, Essequibo Coast labourer Kevin Bettencourt.
Matthias was originally indicted for murder but indicated through his attorney his desire to plead to the lesser charge of manslaughter when the matter was called at the High Court at Suddie.
His plea was accepted by presiding judge Navindra Singh and state counsel Tiffini Lyken.
Mathias would then go on to admit that he had unlawfully killed Bettencourt, whom he stabbed on the night of December 31, 2018, at Pomona, Essequibo.
Justice Singh ordered that the prison authority make the necessary deductions from the 15-year sentence imposed for the time that the offender spent on remand awaiting trial.
According to reports, Bettencourt was attacked by a drunken Matthias who stabbed him in the neck and chest.
Police had said that investigations revealed that Bettencourt had gone to a residence asking for someone, when Matthias, who was reportedly intoxicated, requested that he leave the premises.
The two were subsequently involved in a confrontation, during which Matthias allegedly whipped out a knife and stabbed Bettencourt.
An autopsy would later reveal that Bettencourt died as a result of perforation of the heart due to a stab wound.
Matthias was among a number of prisoners who fled from the Lusignan Prison in October of last year.
Following his recapture later that month, Matthias was sentenced to three years in jail after admitting to escaping custody.
He was recaptured at Zeelugt, East Bank Essequibo on the evening of October 21, hours after he had fled from the facility where he was incarcerated awaiting trial for Bettencourt’s murder.
Police had said that Matthias, formerly of Good Hope Dock Yard, Essequibo and another of the escaped prisoners had entered a vehicle which the police later intercepted during which they were caught.
