Man jailed at Court’s pleasure for killing father

A 48-YEAR-OLD man who suffered paranoia and hallucinations caused by alcohol abuse, was yesterday sentenced by a High Court judge to be kept in custody at the Court’s pleasure for fatally chopping his father. Dunston Willis, of Rio Claro, was found by psychiatrists to suffer several types of psychosis, memory lapses and epileptic fits as a result of 20 years of alcohol abuse. In light of these findings, Justice Herbert Volney ordered that after seven years Dunston Willis, of Princes Town, be brought back to court to see if rehabilitation would assist him in returning to society. “You took a life and I am mindful of your medical history and need for you to be attended to in an institution where you can receive assistance and measured rehabilitation over a period of time,”  Volney said.

According to a report from consultant psychiatrist Dr Gerard Hutchinson, Willis was known to have consumed between one to two bottles of whisky or puncheon rum prior to the incident. Such was the level of alcohol abuse that Willis, even when sober, would hallucinate, seeing donkeys and other animals. Yesterday Willis was brought before Volney charged with the murder of his father, Bradley Willis. The accused pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to the lesser count of manslaughter. Senior State attorney Roger Gaspard said the State was accepting the plea on the basis of diminished responsibility. Willis confessed to police that he chopped his father with a cutlass at their Rio Claro home during a dispute over some money which the elderly man was supposed to lend him to attend a wedding.  Senior State Prosecutor Roger Gaspard said on December 4, 2000, Willis went to the home of Cosmos McBurnett and admitted chopping his 79-year-old father. Willis also told McBurnett that his father was “King Soucouyant” and a female villager was “Queen Soucouyant.”

Upon McBurnett’s advice, Willis turned himself in at the Rio Claro Police Station and confessed to his crime. Police found the elderly man in a semi-conscious state, bleeding from his face, head, neck. The accused man’s father died 35 days after, while being warded at San Fernando General Hospital. At the scene, police recovered a cutlass, a bottle of blood matching the blood group of the deceased and blood-stained clothing. Willis’ attorney Roger Ramgoolam said his client had no previous nor pending convictions.