5 years’ jail for killing prostitute

A 21-year-old man was yesterday sentenced to five years in jail for killing a prostitute in 2001. In passing sentence, Justice Melville Baird took into consideration several factors, but felt that Nicholas Mitchell must serve a prison term for the taking of a life.

Justice Baird spent some time in dealing with the moral decline of our young people which he said must be a cause of concern throughout the country. “When a 14-year-old girl can stab another teenager to death over a boy; when two teenagers can retain the services of a prostitute and then stab her to death; when this type of conduct by our teenagers is paraded before our eyes, we know that the moral fabric of our society is unravelling.” Mitchell, of David Street, St James, appeared before Justice Baird in the Port-of-Spain First Criminal Court charged with the murder of Tazmoon Kamaludin, also called Jennifer Mohammed, at Alfred Richards Street, St James, on March 1, 2001.

Mitchell pleaded guilty to the lesser count on Monday and the State accepted the plea. Osbourne Charles SC and Ravi Rajcoomar appeared for Mitchell, while State attorney Althea Alexis represented the State. The charge was laid by Sgt Nandram Moonilal of the St James CID. Justice Baird said that too many of our young people “are like ships without rudder and without compass. He said they are adrift on a turbulent sea being buffeted by wind and wave, changing course at every perturbation. “Too many of our young people have no parameters by which they can establish a calculus of moral right and wrong. Moral decay is one of the many forms in which evil is manifesting itself in our society. It is a predatory situation in which our young people are easy prey,” he added. The judge continued, “we must appreciate that the young people of our country are our responsibility as a nation. Should we fail them, then we would have failed the country lower down the road when they become adults. “We must come together as a nation and decide what antidote we can administer to our young people in order to neutralise this evil stranglehold in which they are and which is infallibly destroying them. This is a matter of extreme urgency, and we do not have an infinity of time,” he declared.

Justice Baird took into account that the accused pleaded guilty and did not waste the court’s time. “The policy of the courts is that where a man does plead guilty which does not give rise to public advantage and avoids the expense and nuisance of a trial, which may sometimes be a long one, the court encourages pleas of guilty by knocking off the sentence which would have been if there had not been a plea of guilty.” Justice Baird cited retribution, pointing out that the accused had expressed remorse over the killing. Prevention did not arise in this case, the judge added. On the issue of rehabilitation, Justice Baird said it is the memory of the clanging of prison gates which is likely to keep Mitchell from committing crime in the future. Mitchell, who was 19 at the time of the killing, gave a confession statement to the police in which he outlined how Kamaludin was fatally stabbed. Another man who was involved in the attack on the prostitute became a prosecution witness. Kamaludin was stabbed following an argument with one of the men who asked for a refund after she gave him sex.