8 months for killing ‘bully’
Nikita Braxton-Benjamin (Trinidad Express)May 3, 2013
A MAN sentenced to eight years in prison for the stabbing death of his neighbour will spend eight months in prison because he has been in jail the past seven years and four months awaiting trial.
Curtis Garraway, 33, of Cap-de-Ville, pleaded guilty two weeks ago to the charge of manslaughter, following the death of Martin “Bobhead” Francis.
Francis, of Roberts Lane, was killed on Christmas Eve in 2005.
The dead man was described by neighbours as a bully and a bad-john who went looking for fights.
In passing sentence, Justice Carla Browne-Antoine told Garraway to get anger management skills as it will assist him to walk away, should he be provoked when he is released from prison.
“The situation in this country is there are a number of senseless killings. There is a sense in this country that people can’t control their anger and their only course of redress is to hurt another person,” the judge said.
She said while the court is expected to exercise mercy, citizens must do the same.
Browne-Antoine said the court accepted that Garraway acted out of provocation, but she noted Francis was unarmed when he was stabbed.
“The court considers this a serious offence because a life was lost.”
The judge considered that Garraway had shown remorse by wanting to plead guilty from the onset, and at the first opportunity after the stabbing, he made a report to the police.
He told the officers that Francis had threatened and hit him, and he stabbed him twice in his belly.
He was later charged by Corporal Garcia.
Defence attorney Mervyn Mitchell also said his client had apologised to the relatives of the deceased.
Residents of the area described Garraway as a peace-loving and respectful person, and several letters attesting to Garraway’s good character were submitted to the court. A petition asking for him to return to the community had also been handed over.
The judge said the maximum sentence for the offence was life in prison. The State asked for a term of five to ten years while Mitchell said his client should be released.
Browne-Antoine started with a ten-year term and deducted two years as Garraway entered a guilty plea to the manslaughter charge.
She said the 2,672 days Garraway had already spent behind bars were deducted. This amounted to seven years, three months and 26 days.
He will therefore spend eight more months behind bars.
It was the State’s case, as led by attorney Shabana Shah, that around 10 a.m. on December 24, 2005, Francis was quarrelling with Garraway near their homes.
Witnesses later told police there was a dispute between the two men over a water line and a land issue.
Garraway was walking in front of the deceased’s home when Francis called out to him, and he (Garraway) replied: “If you want to slap me down, come, as there is an audience.”
Shah said their neighbour Makeisha Paul heard Francis say to Garraway that he would kill him, and he “shoot behind police already and would shoot him too”.
Shah said, 15 minutes later, Francis confronted Garraway in the roadway with a blade resembling a small cutlass, and Garraway told him to put it down.
Francis went home but returned a short while later, and both he and Garraway were seen confronting each other on the roadway.
The men later scrambled and Garraway stabbed Francis in the chest and lower stomach. Francis ran into a neighbour’s gallery where he collapsed. He died at the San Fernando General Hospital.