The Guyana Court of Appeal has reduced the sentence of Hansel Lewis from 13 years to ten years for the 2013 New Year’s Day attempted murder of Chris Burrowes.
The Court found that Lewis’ conviction by the jury was sound, but agreed that the sentence was severe and in their view should have been 10 years minus the time served on remand while in pretrial custody.
The appeal was heard before acting Chancellor Yonette Cummings-Edwards and Justices of Appeal, Dawn Gregory and Rishi Persaud.
Lewis is currently serving a 13-year prison sentence after a jury convicted him back in 2016 for attempting to murder Burrowes.
Among other things, Justice Brassington Reynolds who had presided over the trial had told Lewis at the time of his sentencing that his use of prohibited substances and subsequent resort to the use of an offensive weapon after he became aggravated, were cause for concern.
In his notice of appeal before the appellate court, Lewis (the Appellant), argued that the trial judge erred in law by “fail [ing] to give any or any proper directions on the dangers of convicting on visual identification evidence when the issue of identification loomed largely.”
He argued too, that the trial judge failed to “adequately” put his defence to the jury and gave “inappropriate directions on the law of inconsistency.”
Justice Cummings-Edwards in her delivery of the ruling said that given the circumstances they would have also directed the jury in a similar manner to that of the trial judge. She stated that the guidance given to the jury was sufficient but they felt the sentence should have been less.
It had been the state’s case that on the morning in question Burrowes had left a party in New Amster-dam, and moments later crossed the road and stood at a nearby intersection where he proceeded to urinate.
The court had heard from Burrowes during the trial that it was while unzipping his pants that he saw Lewis who removed a two-inch, plastic-handled knife, from his left-side pocket with which he stabbed him on the right side of his neck.
The assailant calmly walked away and Burrowes collapsed a short distance away.
He was taken to the New Amsterdam Hospital, where he was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit and discharged 18 days later.
Burrowes had told the court that he was drinking Banko wine while he was at the night spot, and Lewis, who was next to him, was smoking a high-scented substance.
As a result, he [Burrowes] had asked him to go somewhere else to smoke. Lewis, he said, had turned and looked at him in a funny manner, and he [Burrowes] interpreted it to mean, ‘I like talk’.
