Rupununi resident, Yuri Nicholas, is set to be sentenced on February 5th for the 2019 killing of Elton Leonard.
Nicholas who had originally been indicted for murder, pleaded to the lesser offence of manslaughter at his arraignment before the High Court on Tuesday morning.
While he denied the capital offence, he admitted guilt on the lesser charge, accepting that he unlawfully killed Leonard on May 3rd, 2019 at Karasabai Village, Rupununi, Region 9.
Following police investigations, Nicholas was arrested and charged.
According to the prosecution’s case which the defence accepts, the accused provided investigators with a caution statement, detailing his involvement in the conmission of the offence.
State Counsel Caressa Henry noted that the deceased and accused were known to each other, but were not friemds and the latter had told police that whenever Leonard consumed alcohol, he would verbally abuse him.
According to the statement of agreed facts presented to the court, Nicholas said that on the day in question he was drinking with friends when he saw Leonard who started cursing at them.
At that point, Nicholas said he decided that he was going to fight Leonard; and so after drinking some more, he encouraged his friends to fight Leonard.
The men all agreed with the plot and they called Leonard out, and started fighting him.
According to the statement, the men realized that they were no match for the “stronger” Leonard.
As a result, one from the group identified by the name “Bruce,” whippped out a knife with which he stabbed Leonard to the left side of his chest.
As the mortally wounded man fell to the ground, they continued their beating, stomping him on his head and abdomen.
As public-spirited persons started to converge after being alerted to the comotion, the men fled the scene.
Witness Shurland Davis had told the police that at about 12.20 am he was awakened by a lady screaming.
After venturing outside, he said he was unable to see anything under the cover of dark and so he decided to put on the lights on his motorbike.
He said he rode out to see what was happening and observed the fighting group of which Nicholas was a part.
Davis said he observed that some were armed with knives, some bricks and others wood; while one man had a machete.
The witness said he rode off to alert the police; but after returning to the location with lawmen, the men were nowehere to be found, but they observed Leonard lying motionless on the ground with a wound to the left side of his chest.
Following an autopsy, the cause of death was given as perforation of the heart due to a stab wound.
Nicholas is being represented by defence attorney Teriq Mohamed.
