Appeal Court affirms 18 years for manslaughter

Ali’s attorney, Keith Scotland, argued three grounds of appeal before Justices Stanley John, Ivor Archie and Paula Mae Weekes, while Deputy DPP Carla Brown-Antoine, responded on behalf of the State.

At the end, the court dismissed the appeal, affirmed the sentence, but ordered that it run from date of conviction.

Ali, of Petit Valley, was charged with John’s murder, but was found guilty of manslaughter by the jury and sentenced by Justice Anthony Carmona on February 18, 2005, at the Port-of-Spain Assizes.

The evidence was that Ali had shot John, aka Fygee, also of Petit Valley, with a 12-gauge shotgun, on Morne Coco Road, at about 7.45 am on June 28, 2002.

Ali had given various accounts of the circumstances which led up to the shooting of John, but maintained that the gun had gone off accidentally.

He claimed that the deceased was chasing him with a knife, he pulled the gun from a cardboard box and when the deceased scoffed at the old gun, saying it had no shots in it, he pulled the hammer back and it accidentally fell back exploding with a shot striking John.

Scotland had argued that the trial judge had erred in law by allowing into evidence inadmissible hearsay evidence of a highly prejudicial nature. Another ground was that the judge had embarked on the sentencing process without first discerning the factual basis upon which the jury came to its decision.

Brown-Antoine noted the dangers in the judge embarking on such an exercise without prior warning to the jury by writing the questions he would be asking after reaching a verdict.

She also submitted that the jury, by its verdict, had rejected Ali’s claim of self defence and accident.