12 years for Tisagh Chase

User Rating:  / 0

Details

Parent Category: Jan 2012

Category: Week end Jan 21st, 2012

Published on Sunday, 22 January 2012 16:07

Hits: 772

High Court Judge Justice Clare Henry has imposed a 12-year prison sentence on young entrepreneur Tisagh Chase for murder. Justice Henry disregarded a submission that was put forward by defense counsel Ruggles Ferguson last month for his client to be given a non-custodial sentence for causing the unlawful death of Kevin Hillaire of Mardi Gras, St. Paul’s sometime between June 12 and 13, 2008.

Hillaire died from a single stab wound he received during an altercation with Chase at an apartment in Mont Tout, St. George’s that was being occupied by Trisha Haywood, Chase’s girlfriend and child mother.

The 27-year old Chase was found guilty of the crime of murder at High Court Number One on July 26, 2011. During the final stage of the sentencing phase of the murder trial on Tuesday, Justice Henry said although the mitigating factors in the case outweighs the aggravating factors, the fact of the matter is that society, through the court, needs to show its abhorrence to that level of crime.

She took into account Chase’s good character, noting that he has had no previous conviction, and that he had been violently attacked by Hillaire as part of the mitigating factors. However, the female High Court Judge pointed to the nature and severity of the wound that was inflicted on the deceased man.

The medical report that was presented to the court revealed that two of Hillaire’s ribs were broken and some tissues were missing. According to Justice Henry, the court sees the need for a general deterrence to curb criminal activities on the island.

Chase has already spent four months on remand before he was granted bail in October 2008, and was again remanded in custody last July pending sentencing at the end of the trial. At the start of the trial on July 4, 2011, Crown Counsel Howard Pinnock who led the evidence described the matter as a classic case of a love triangle.

After being in a relationship with Hillaire for seven years from which they bore three children, Haywood entered into an intimate relationship with Chase while being his employee at a cell phone and accessory shop at Le Marquis Shopping Complex in Grand Anse, St. George’s. In an immediate reaction to the sentence, attorney Ferguson said he is very disappointed.

“I am extremely disappointed with the sentence given the peculiar facts of this case,” he told members of the media.Ferguson who heads the law firm of Ciboney Chambers on H. A. Blaize Street in St. George’s said while he respects the decision of the judge he will be appealing the sentence.

He said he had hoped that he would have been heading to the Appeal Court only on the conviction of his client but was now forced to appeal the sentence instead. “Twelve years, in our view, is extremely excessive based on the circumstances of this case. The Learned Trial Judge applied the right principles, but the wrong sentence,” he remarked.

Ferguson described Chase as an exemplary human being, “brilliant academically, brilliant in the field of sports, brilliant in all pursuits he has undertaken from his school days until now.” The lawyer is hopeful that the Court of Appeal would intervene and correct what he described as an injustice in the case.

Court observers believe that Ferguson should have accepted a manslaughter bargain that was offered to him by the State. However, he dismissed that saying should the Appeal Court offer a retrial and he continues to be the defense attorney in the matter, and another offer of manslaughter is made, he would not advise Chase to accept that offer based on the circumstances of the case.

According to Ferguson, manslaughter is a conviction that is held against an individual for life. “In this case, it is a clear case of self-defense,” he said.

• < Prev