Forty-nine-year-old father of two Neil Archer, who killed his wife back in 2003 for which he completed a 17-year sentence in 2016, was yesterday sentenced to 14 years for the brutal chopping of another woman, whose fingers he severed in an attack as she slept, following his release from prison.
“Angel of death” was how the virtual complainant who was chopped about the body and can no longer write, straighten or use her fingers, described Archer.
“He has not impressed me as being genuinely interested in rehabilitation” Justice Simone Morris-Ramlall said in a stern reprimand to the offender who begged for mercy and sought the forgiveness of the complainant and her children.
With his previous blemished record featuring prominently at the sentencing hearing, and noting among other things the attack on the sleeping woman which was witnessed by her children, the judge said she discerned no mitigating factors.
It would be a mere three months after being released from prison in 2016, that Archer was back behind bars for the attempted murder of the woman whom he attacked with a cutlass, severing a number of fingers, and rendering the remaining ones unusable.
The October 19th, 2016 charge stated that he attempted to murder the woman. He had been indicted for felonious wounding in the alternative.
At his arraignment just under a month ago, however, Archer admitted guilt for attempting to murder the woman.
Justice Morris-Ramlall had deferred his sentencing for a probation report and an impact statement from the victim.
Though she highlighted the inability to use her fingers which she said has significantly hampered her trade as a cook, the complainant in a victim impact statement presented to the court, is said to have related her elation at Archer accepting responsibility for what he had done to her.
The court heard of the woman’s relief of justice being served; and her adding that, “women can now be safe from the angel of death,” whom she said she would have liked to see spend the rest of his life behind bars.
In a mitigating plea on behalf of his client in which he begged for leniency, defence attorney Teriq Mohamed asked the Judge to consider Archer’s guilty plea which would have saved considerable time in otherwise having to conduct a trial.
He also asked that his expression of remorse be considered.
In her address to the court, however, Prosecutor Cicelia Corbin in an impassioned plea underscored the prevalence of domestic violence, and against that background asked the judge to impose a sentence that would send a strong message of deterrence to potential offenders.
Corbin submitted, too, for the Court’s consideration the “immense hardships” the victim continues to endure owing to the injuries she sustained in the attack; even as she brought to the fore his antecedents.
The prosecutor said that Archer had been sentenced to seven years back in 1997 for the offence of wounding with intent and another seven 7 years for attempted murder—which were served concurrently—for the attack on a woman back then.
It was after his release from prison for those offences, that he killed his wife Shevon Archer in 2003 and was handed the 17-year sentence in 2005.
Corbin went on to emphasize that after being released from prison on July 9th, 2016, Archer then committed the current offence on October 19th of that said year.
Expressing sentiments which had also been lamented by the prosecution and in probation reports on Archer during his previous sentencing hearings, Corbin said that the repeated pattern exhibited by the offender, clearly illustrates that he has no intention of reform.
On this point she said that while he may seem remorseful, he made no effort at bettering himself while behind bars, noting that while anger-management classes are available for prisoners, the accused never took advantage of that programme.
In imposing sentence, Justice Morris-Ramlall said a base of 12 years was appropriate. Underscoring the aggravating factors of the case, however, she said that an adjustment upward was warranted.
In her assessment of the aggravating factors, the judge said that while Archer said he was sorry, and asked for an opportunity to be reintegrated into society, she placed little weight on his claim, since he had been given two previous opportunities “and upon being released from prison, he reverted in short order, to similar conduct.”
Considering his age, and particularly his violent history, the Court then declared, “I am not of the view that there are reasonable prospects for his rehabilitation.”
To the 12 years, Justice Morris-Ramlall added six years—giving a total of 18 years.
She said that while she was mandated to make a 1 1/3 deduction for Archer’s early plea, she found that his case was fit to deviate from that principle for which the law also provides.
Instead of deducting six years therefrom, she only deducted four, bringing the total sentence to 14 years, from which she said the prison will make deductions for time Archer would have spent on remand.
In addition to the sentence, she ordered that beginning next month—and for every month until he is released from prison—Archer must be exposed to counselling and/or anger management sessions.
On July 25th, 2005, Archer was sentenced to 17 years by then Justice of Appeal Claudette Singh.
He had been indicted for murder but pleaded guilty to the lesser count of manslaughter for Shevon’s July 5th, 2003 unlawful killing.
He had chopped Shevon several times to her neck.
The probation report back then had described him as a violent man who by then already had a criminal record for violence against a former reputed wife.
“The killing of women is prevalent in society today, therefore society needs to send a strong message of how this action is viewed,” the probation and social services officer had said at the time.
