El Socorro man pleads guilty to killing wife

Pleading guilty to the charge was Terry Yearwood of Don Miguel Road, El Socorro, who was before Justice Anthony Carmona in the Port-of-Spain Fourth Criminal Court.

Yearwood pleaded guilty to killing his wife of four years, Donna Marie Alexis, on October 10, 2003, at her mother’s Barataria home.

The State, represented by attorney Kathy Ann Waterman Latchoo, accepted Yearwood’s guilty plea to the charge, and the court then heard the evidence which led to the killing of the accused’s wife. The court heard that on October 4, the accused went to visit his wife who was at her mother’s Jogie Road home in Barataria, banging on the gate and cursing because his wife would not come out. On October 10, the accused returned to the Barataria house where the deceased, Donna Marie Alexis, went outside to speak with him. Sometime after, the deceased called out to her mother, Jean Corryatt, and shouted "Mummy, Terry has a gun," and ran towards the apartment.

Alexis was then grabbed by the accused and a struggle ensued. Corryatt and the deceased’s sister, Kathy Ann Alexis, who had both come to assist Alexis, were also involved in the struggle.

The accused’s sister-in-law noticed that Yearwood had a gun in his hand, and struggled with him to take the gun away. After the deceased’s sister threw the gun in a neighbour’s yard and struck Yearwood in the face, she returned with her mother and sister to their apartment.

The accused man reportedly went back to his car and quickly returned to the apartment where he struggled with Alexis yet again, stabbing her several times with a knife. The deceased’s mother and sister jumped on Yearwood’s back in an attempt to subdue him. However, Yearwood managed to fight off Alexis’ relatives and then turned the knife on himself, stabbing himself in the neck.

The husband and wife were taken to the hospital where emergency surgery was performed on the accused to have the lodged knife removed from his neck. However, Yearwood’s wife was pronounced dead on arrival. In a mitigation plea, Yearwood’s attorney, Dana Seetahal, told the court that her client blamed his actions on provocation by his mother-in-law. He said his mother-in-law was responsible for the breakdown in his marriage. "Provocation emanated from the family relationship which kept him from accessing his wife," said Seetahal.

The attorney continued, "He has pleaded guilty, and that fact must be considered.

A person who pleads guilty, as a general principle, a person expects some ray of credit." Yearwood will be sentenced on October 14.