Murder accused sent to St Ann’s Hospital

A MURDER accused who pleaded guilty to a lesser count of manslaughter was yesterday committed to the St Ann’s Hospital for treatment. Sitting in the Port-of-Spain Fourth Criminal Court, Justice Malcolm Holdip committed 24-year-old Curtis O’Garro to the institution at the court’s pleasure to come up for review in two years. O’Garro, who had been charged with the February 6, 1999 murder of 63-year-old watchman Gregor Moore, had changed his plea last Friday and had been remanded at the institution pending sentencing. Holdip yesterday said the court had accepted the mitigation plea made by O’Garro’s attorney Sophia Chote and that if he (O’Garro) had not turned himself in to the police, there was no way the murder would have been solved.

Holdip said the court had also noted that the accused had been remorseful. In a bid to have her client sent to the institution instead of serving a prison term, Chote had submitted ten reports of psychiatric, psychological and social nature showing that her client had a history of mental illness even before the offence had been committed. According to the reports, O’Garro had been diagnosed with Paranoid Schizophrenia, a condition which needed long-term treatment and support to prevent him from performing criminal acts. O’Garro, the reports showed, had attempted suicide on several occasions, experienced mood swings, bouts of depression, heard voices and experienced thought broadcasting — a conviction that other people knew what he was thinking.

The artist, of Eastern Quarry in Laventille, had allegedly murdered Moore at a construction site on Lady Chancellor. He gave himself up at a police station in Tobago on October 23, 2001. According to O’Garro, he had gone to the construction site and met Moore in a shed. They socialised for a while before Moore went to feed his dog. When the watchman was returning, OGarro said, he took a piece of iron and hit him (Moore) on his head. He then took a cutlass from the shed and chopped the watchman on the neck because he did not want him to suffer. He then threw several concrete blocks on the body and washed the victim’s face with water. When O’Garro’s committal comes up for review, his progress will be looked at to determine whether or not it is safe to allow him to return to society. The State was represented by attorneys Alexander Prince and Jennifer Martin.