Prosecutors have called for a 25-year sentencing starting point for a man who killed his grandfather, rejecting the defence’s proposed 15 years and its argument that the fatal attack involved a mutual struggle.
Keon Curwen Downes, of Rose Hill, St Peter, previously denied murdering Grenville Cumberbatch on June 16, 2021, but pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter.
During his reappearance in the No. 4 Supreme Court, his defence counsel Safiya Moore said that not every conviction for manslaughter warranted life imprisonment.
She acknowledged clear aggravating factors, including the disparity between Downes’ age of 21 at the time and Cumberbatch’s age of 68; the fact that Cumberbatch was killed in his own home; the fact that the initial argument started over someone eating the other’s luncheon meat; and the multiple weapons used by Downes: a knife, scissors, a hammer and a tile.
The lawyer stressed the elements of provocation in the matter, saying, “While the incident that started that day was about luncheon meat, when the court reads the behavioural and presentence report, you can see the concept of that being the last draw. It was clearly a household that was filled with tension and volatility.”
“It clearly was an altercation in the household. He was injured at the time he was brought into custody….This is not a case where he was just attacking a person. It is not a case where he was the only one doing something. He is saying ‘I was attacked and I retaliated and responded to that attack,” Moore added.
She acknowledged that the injuries inflicted on Cumberbatch were excessive in number and went beyond self-defence.
Moore nevertheless submitted that a three-year deduction should be made from the starting sentence for mitigating factors, citing his lack of previous convictions, his cooperation with police, his remorse and the fact that many people had considered Downes’ behaviour that day “an anomaly.”
However, acting Senior State Counsel Paul Prescod, who is prosecuting with acting Director of Public Prosecutions Alliston Seale SC, said that Cumberbatch was involved in the scuffle only because it was a life-or-death situation.
“There was no fight. This is a man who was fighting for dear life,” the prosecutor stressed, insisting that a 25-year starting point would serve justice in the matter.
Highlighting Downes’ own statement to support his position, Prescod recounted the sequence of events leading to the fatal attack. He noted that, after searching for and finding his fan in the kitchen, Downes confronted his grandfather about the luncheon meat the elderly man was eating. Downes then went to his bedroom and sat briefly before pursuing his grandfather, who was walking towards the washroom. He stabbed Cumberbatch with a knife, then struck him with a tile and a hammer, inflicted multiple scissor wounds, shoved him down the stairs and threw the hammer at him.
The prosecutor described this as callous behaviour and insisted that a 15-year starting sentence would not serve justice in the matter.
Prescod pointed out that the manslaughter plea was accepted by the State because of the element of provocation.
Agreeing with the aggravating factors identified by the defence, including the number of injuries inflicted on Cumberbatch, he also highlighted Downes’ post-offence behaviour: changing his clothes, leaving the home to discard them and attempting to dissociate himself from the killing when he returned to the scene.
“I believe the State would be a laughingstock if we accepted 15 years as a starting point…. We do not want a situation where people are of the view ‘well he dead and gone so give he a little slap on the wrist and let he go long’. It can’t work, not from the State’s standpoint. We have to be very careful how we treat with this matter and so we are suggesting a 25-year starting point,” he added.
The case continues before Justice Laurie-Ann Smith-Bovell on Monday.
(JB)
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