‘I did not mean to drown my baby’

IN WHAT was described as the first plea bargain agreement reached in this country, a 24-year-old woman pleaded guilty yesterday to attempting to murder her two and a half month old baby boy, by throwing him in the sea off Sea Lots three years ago. Erica Williams had also planned to drown herself after a fight with her common-law husband Richard Springer, but a friend saved her baby and also talked her out of killing herself. Yesterday, Williams, through her attorney Keith Scotland, expressed remorse at what she had done, saying she never intended to kill her baby. Since that fateful day in 2001, Williams has had two other children and is now five months’ pregnant. She is also planning to marry the same boyfriend when the case is over.

State attorney Alexander Prince confirmed that the prosecution and the defence had reached a plea bargain agreement and felt that a non-custodial sentence would be appropriate. The document, dated March 16, was tendered in court yesterday. But Justice Prakash Moosai, presiding in the Port-of-Spain Fourth Criminal Court, sent different signals by the questions he asked. The judge asked attorneys, “Do you think that the clanging of doors behind the accused will serve as some sort of punishment for what she did? Attempted murder is a very serious offence. It carries the maximum sentence of life imprisonment.” The court went silent. Prince, who had minutes before stated that he was leaving the sentencing for the court, rose and pointed out that Williams was seven months’ pregnant at the time of the offence. He said that based on reports tendered in court, Williams was drunk and had been drugged.

“I can also say that she lacked the intention to kill the baby. The prosecution is of the view, bearing in mind that she is the mother of three children, that a custodial sentence will mean the separation of mother from her children. “It was a one-off act, it was not something she had planned to commit,” Prince told the court. But Justice Moosai was not in the position to pass sentence yesterday, saying he had to study the submissions and the reports tendered. Williams will be sentenced on March 25. Williams, who now lives in Claxton Bay, is charged with attempting to kill Akeem Springer on May 28, 2001 at Sea Lots. In his plea for mitigation, Scotland said there was evidence that Williams’ drink was spiked by “unscrupulous predators” on the night of the incident. “This is a chance for my client to live an upstanding life again,” defence counsel added. Scotland said Williams was five months’ pregnant and plans to marry her boyfriend when the case is over. In her statement to the police, Williams said that she and Springer had domestic problems on a regular basis. “He doesn’t want me to go anywhere, all he want me to do is to stay home and mine baby as though ah in jail.”