(Trinidad Express) A convicted killer, who twice lost his appeal against sentence, has been ordered set free after spending more than 32 years in prison.
Keiron Thomas beat a man with a hay fork before chasing and chopping him to death in August 1991.
Justice Tricia Hudlin Cooper on Monday re-sentenced Thomas in accordance with the Privy Council case of Naresh Boodram v The Attorney General of Trinidad and Tobago which held that life in prison amounts to cruel and unusual punishment.
Therefore, the High Court is now required to re-sentence those who were ordered to serve life, to specific numbers of years based on the individual circumstances of each case.
In the Thomas case, the judge sentenced him to 45 years, but he was given a two-year discount for spending time on death row before his sentence was commuted to life in prison.
He was also given two years off for his positive work and activities in prison, and his good character, which brought his sentence to 38 years.
However, the sentence was calculated from his date of conviction, which resulted in a final sentence of time served.
The court was also told that Thomas was allowed to move around the prison premises without prison officers’ supervision and owing to his reputation among prison personnel, and that earlier this year, he began escorting ill inmates to the hospital, pushing the wheelchair or accompanying the ill inmate to his clinic or appointment through the hospital corridors.
The court was told that his brothers would permit him to cultivate lands and rear goats and sheep, since he wanted to start his own agriculture business.
Justice Hudlin Cooper told Thomas she never wanted to see him in her court again, and that he put his plans in place and teach a younger generation about the correct path to take in life.
Thomas was represented by Michelle Lai from the Public Defenders Department.
The crime Thomas committed
Thomas killed Gerry “Worries” Williams on the night of August 7, 1991. He was sentenced to death in July 1994.
Thomas and Williams were involved in the drug trade. Williams had disposed of some of the drugs belonging to Thomas, who armed himself with a hay fork and cutlass and lay in wait for Williams along a track. When Williams came along, Thomas hit him on the back and the fork broke. Thomas began beating Williams who fled but was chased. Thomas caught up with Williams who was beaten until he fell. It was there he was fatally chopped across the neck. “Boss, I did not go to kill him, only to chop him” was Thomas’ defence when arrested.
