He killed to defend wife

Taken from our C O U R T section."

RICHARD NELSON was yesterday reunited with his common-law wife and children after spending four years in prison awaiting trial for killing a man who had heckled his then nine-months pregnant common-law wife.

Nelson, 30, who pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter last Thursday was yesterday placed on a $50,000 bond by San Fernando judge Joan Charles who ordered him to keep the peace for five years.

Charles who presided in the Second Assizes, said the court accepted that Nelson was provoked and the evidence suggested he acted in defence of his wife and himself.

“It is unfortunate that a young man lost his life but the deceased and his friends initiated the incident,” the judge said. Charles said she did not believe the non-custodial sentence would erode public confidence in the administration of justice nor will cause the value of human life to be depreciated.

The judge said she disagreed with State Prosecutor Angelica Teelucksingh’s view that the circumstances surrounding the incident were not rare and exceptional.

Charles said the deceased Radesh Boodoo and his friends were intoxicated on the night of June 19, 2002. She referred to reports from blood and urine analyses which revealed Boodoo had smoked marijuana hours before the incident. The State alleged Nelson’s wife, Tracey, was about to enter her home, when Boodoo and his friends began to heckle her. Before Nelson intervened, Charles said, Boodoo and his friends were behaving in an extremely aggressive manner towards Tracey.

The judge said even when Tracey complained to Nelson about the harassment, he did not respond. According to the judge, the husband also did not react, when the wife decided to “defend her honour” by walking out the house with a piece of PVC pipe.

“It was only when the men surrounded her menacingly and were pointing their fingers and threatening her...did he (Nelson) come out of the apartment,” Charles said.

Nelson had told police, Boodoo dipped in his pocket. Charles told the court yesterday that it was at that point, Nelson stabbed Boodoo in the neck and chest with a pen-knife.

In passing sentence, Charles warned Nelson that if he breaks the bond, he will come up for sentencing for the offence of killing Boodoo.