Lawyers try last minute insanity plea

The last-minute claim by Excellent Stores arsonist, Peter Mc Donald, that he was a madman, failed to stop his sentencing yesterday. Justice Melville Baird was not impressed with the new information and an application by Mc Donald’s attorney, Ulric Skerritt, to stall sentencing pending a probation officer’s report. He then sentenced Mc Donald to 17 years hard labour. When the matter was called yesterday for sentencing, Skerritt, instructed by Dawn Mohan informed Baird that he had only minutes before been informed by Mc Donald’s brother Collin Delores, that Mc Donald had a history of mental illness. Skerritt made it clear that at no time during the trial had his client or any relative brought this information to his attention. Having received this information, even at that late hour, Skerritt said he felt obligated to inform the court and he went on to make an application to the court to postpone sentencing and order a probation officer’s report.


Senior State prosecutor Wayne Rajbansie said he was taken by surprise by the application, and that he was still uncertain what Skerritt was requesting and the value of such a report at this stage. Rajbansie recalled Mc Donald being arraigned and answering a plea by himself, giving written instructions to his attorney, testify on oath in chief and responding to cross-examination questions cogently. Rajbansie said it was clear from Mc Donald’s answers he was following the course of the trial. He said it was unfair to have the issue raised at that time, and strenuously objected to the reopening of the case. Baird, presiding in the Port-of-Spain First Criminal Court, agreed with Rajbansie and also expressed surprise. However, he adjourned the matter for 15 minutes and, on his return, he dismissed the application by Skerritt for a probation officer’s report, and proceeded to sentence Mc Donald.

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