Senior Magistrate Rickie Burnett on Monday vacated a guilty plea by a woman who told the court she had accidentally inflicted the cut that left her boyfriend with 16 stitches to his penis.
Sherika Chandler, 27, a food vendor, of Old Montrose was charged with wounding Adrian DaSilva, a 30-year-old programmer, of Edinboro, at Old Montrose last Thursday, July 12.
According to the facts presented by the prosecution, Chandler had asked DaSilva to bathe their son and he refused.
He told Chandler that she had been at home all day doing nothing and that he had just come from work.
DaSilva and Chandler are in visiting relationship, and he told her that he would sleep on the floor for the night.
While he was asleep, Chandler took a piece of broken mirror, held DaSilva by his penis, and cut him on the organ.
DaSilva was treated at the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital and later reported the matter to the police.
When cautioned, Chandler gave a statement admitting to the offence.
As the hearing moved to the sentencing stage, DaSilva told the court that their son was not at home all day, but that he had brought the child home around 5:30 p.m.
He further said that he was not asleep when Chandler cut him.
“I was choked, my boxers (boxer shorts) were ripped off. My comment to her was she was not the boss of here so she should stop trying to be the boss. And then I was cut,” Da Silva told the court.
When asked about who is in charge of the house, DaSilva said that Chandler’s name is on the lease.
He further told the court that on the day in question, Chandler prepared hot water and said, “Somebody is going to die.”
At this point, the magistrate asked the defendant, “All that happened?”
Chandler told the court that an argument had developed between she and DaSilva over the child’s bath and escalated after DaSilva took up her phone.
“When she was choking me, I put down the phone and then she grabbed me by the balls. She did not stop,” said DaSilva who and Chandler have been in a four-year relationship that produced the child.
Asked if the four years of the relationship has been “smooth sailing”, Chandler told the court that that was the case for the first year, but the relationship has been rocky over the last three years.
When asked to give her version of what happened, Chandler said that it had happened “exactly” as Da Silva said but was “a bit edited”.
She said that during the argument she did threaten DaSilva “to leave the house”.
“I told him that several times,” Chandler told the court, adding, “It was like in stages.”
Chandler told the court that she had fallen asleep but could not say at what time, neither could she recall at what time she woke up.
She said that after waking up she asked DaSilva why their son had not been bathed.
“Mr. DaSilva is verbally abusive. So because of that, I told him to leave because he was just being the person he is, saying a lot of mean things. I threatened him with the hot water. I light it and he came and turned it off,” she told the court.
Chandler said that she threw DaSilva’s clothes outside with the intention that when he went to retrieve them she would lock him outside.
She said that she further told DaSilva that she did not want him there that night and that he should come back the following day, Friday.
“But he was being very disrespectful,” Chandler said, adding that she later bathed the child and told DaSilva that he could “stay there and done”.
She said that after some time DaSilva ripped her shirt and he ripped his boxers.
“He put on a next boxer and then he went on the ground. After that, I picked up my phone,” Chandler said, adding that DaSilva told her that she was not going on the phone while he was there.
She said she put down the device and “when he got comfortable again”, she again began to use the phone.
Chandler told the court that she and DaSilva were both scrambling for the phone.
“Then is when I saw a piece of mirror,” she said, adding that she told DaSilva that she didn’t want any argument and wanted him to leave.
She said that DaSilva then took the phone and pelted it on the bed.
“I was just there with the weapon in my hand,” she said, demonstrating to the court how she was standing.
Chandler told the court that she did not intend to cut DaSilva.
“It was an accident,” she said, adding that after DaSilva was injured she went for tissue to help him and told him it was an accident.
She told the court that the day after the incident, DaSilva told her that the only reason he is taking her to court is to get custody of their child.
Chandler told the court that she had miscarried once because DaSilva had struck her in her belly.
At this point, the magistrate stopped the woman, telling her that he was entering a not guilty plea for her.
The court heard that the woman was already on EC$1,500 bail.
However, Burnett said that this was not enough, and increased the bail to EC$3,000, with one surety.
He set Sept. 10 as the date for trial in the matter.
Whats going on in Vincy land. Is this an emerging trend of lawleness or farelessness against the law. From the beating of a man in Leeward for alledgedly molesting a child to a woman cutting up a mans pennis.
I guess this is a message to all men. Especially the cheating ones. If you cheat you will get beat. This is a beautiful heartless woman……….My brother if I were you I will move to Owia or Union Island or perhaps Venezuela.
GOOD ADJUDICATING
This is what ‘…Good Adjudicators’ do. Commendation to the Senior Magistrate.
Where there is a’…Guilty Plea’ and the facts of the case are disputed by the person
making such plea, the Court is most often minded to ‘…hear the totality of the evidence.’
This means …conducting full trial where the issues will be fully ventilated.’
There might not only be ‘…aggravating or mitigating factors’ for the Court’s consideration,
but also to allow for ‘…informed judicial decisions..
Mariners know that after ‘…smooth sailing or flying,’ there was often ‘…rough seas or turbulence.’
Thus, there might be peril.
Not countenancing ‘…domestic abuse or any form of violence against the genders,’
but sometimes male counterparts had contributed to having their ‘…health and comfort
interfered with.
In many respects, the virtual complainant,appeared to have been a fool.
Hot water; …clothes thrown out.’He appeared reckless not to have taken warning.
He shall have seen danger when his partner reportedly said ‘…Somebody is going to die.’
Most certainly, it was not going to be the child.
None may provoke his/her partner to wrath. In the face of imminent danger, one may
simply and peacefully walk away.
Readers may wish to visit ‘…UPI News: November 8, 1993’ to know what transpired
between spouses ‘…Lorena and John Babbitt.’ His penis was completely severed.
Too bad that great magistrates like Burnett have to hear these domestic disputes. Instead of more Customs workers hired to increase the bureaurocracy and cost to the people of Saint Vincent, we should have more good judges to dispense all these cases. We should get rid of the judges that are no good, primarily those that have demonstrated thier political bias, or those that have passed sentences based on NO evidence.
I am thankful that Kenton Chance is a leader in exposing both the good and bad of our justice system as well as demonstrating the level of difficulty these judges are often faced with. Shame on those judges that seek to make thier decisions easier by basing thier decisions on personal emotions or political bias, tricky lawyers or politicians greed or arrogance, rather than on the law and the difference between right and wrong.
ah what kinda precedent this woman wah start in Vincy lol………this will make ah good soca/calypso song for the upcoming season .
I can just hear the calypso lyrics now!