Toco man faces the hangman

Neil Hernandez was found guilty by a jury and sentenced to death by Justice Malcolm Holdip in the Port-of-Spain Criminal Court on November 29, 2004. He lost his appeal yesterday before Chief Justice Sat Sharma, Justice Stanley John, and Justice Allan Mendonca.

If Hernandez loses his final appeal before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, he falls well short of the five-year guideline laid down in the Pratt and Morgan judgment. He was also convicted after the Charles Matthew judgment on July 7, 2004, and is not one of those on Death Row whose death sentences can be commuted.

Hernandez was charged with the murders of Christine Henry and her son Phillip, on May 2, 2000 at Tompire Beach, Toco. Both victims were chopped all over their bodies. Hernandez was represented by attorneys Margaret Rose and Celeste Jules, while Special Prosecutor Bindra Dolsingh appeared for the State.

The State’s case rested primarily on a confessional statement of the appellant. In the statement, Hernandez alleged he was tricked and was prevented from seeing the contents as the paper was folded. He said he was requested to sign the statement and he obliged.

In that statement, Hernandez said he had a quarrel with Henry after she reported him to the supervisor for not going to work. A scuffle ensued and he planassed her without the intention of chopping her.

When Henry called her six-year-old son to alert others about the incident, Hernandez also planassed the boy without the intention of chopping him. He eventually chopped both mother and son. But in his statement, Hernandez said the deaths were caused by accident and that he was sorry for what had happened.

The other aspect of the prosecution’s case was the "dying declaration" of Christine Henry. Two villagers Darren Lyons and Julien Des Vignes witnessed the "dying declaration."

Des Vignes said he knew Hernandez as "Redman." He spoke to Henry while she was dying on the beach. She told him it was "Redman" who had chopped her. Lyons also saw Henry, his aunt, on the beach. She told him that she was going to die, to take care of her children and it was "Redman" who committed the act against her.

Henry also told Lyons that Hernandez "took her baby" referring to her six year-old son Phillip who was lying dead on the beach.

Corporal Anthony Wright, who is attached to the Toco Police Station, said he went to the Peakes Estate on May 2, 2000, and saw Phillip’s body with chop wounds to his head and neck. He received information about Christine Henry who died four days later at the Intensive Care Unit of the Port-of-Spain General Hospital. She was also severely chopped about the body.

Wright conducted inquiries and arrested Hernandez.

Rose argued several grounds including one that the trial judge failed to direct the jury on the issue of accident. She said the judge also failed to properly direct the jury on the mens rea for murder as it related to the facts of the instant case.

After hearing the submissions from Rose and Dolsingh, the court dismissed the appeal.