Man jailed for killing friend who met him in bed with his girlfriend

A 49-year-old man who killed a friend during an argument after he sent the friend to buy rum and used the opportunity of his absence to have sex with the friend’s girlfriend has been ordered to serve a further five years in prison for the crime.

The High Court had arrived at a sentence of 10 years for the man, Delroy Quashie, but reduced it to five years because he was already serving sentences totalling 28 years for sex crimes.  

Quashie, of Sally Spring, was initially charged with murder in connection with the August 2021 death of Shon Browne aka “Sean Paul” at his Diamond home.

However, Quashie pleaded guilty to manslaughter under a plea deal reached between the prosecution and defence.

The facts of the case, as outlined by Justice Brian Cottle at High Court No. 1 on June 28 is that on Aug. 22, 2021, Quashie visited Browne’s home at Diamond, where Browne lived with his girlfriend, Ruby Francis.

Browne and Quashie were friends and at Quashie’s request, left to buy rum and coke.

When Browne returned, they drank and chatted together.

Later that evening, Browne went back to the shop, during which time Quashie propositioned Francis, who agreed to have sex with him.

The two had intercourse in Browne’s bed and Browne met them still engaged in the act when he returned.

Browne remonstrated with Francis and used a broomstick to hit her and also attempted to use it to beat Quashie, who held onto the stick and told Browne to behave himself.

Browne left the room and returned with a cutlass and tried to strike Francis with it.

Quashie pushed Browne from the room and a struggle ensued between them during which Quashie received an injury to his arm.

He said he was not going to take it and took a knife from the bag he was carrying and stabbed Browne to the chest.

Browne later died of the injury.

Quashie pleaded guilty to manslaughter by reason of provocation.

In handing down his sentence, Justice Cottle noted that Quashie has several convictions, the most recent of which were for sex crimes for which he was sentenced to 22- and 20-year concurrent sentences.

He was also sentenced to two years on each of three other counts of the same offence, meaning he will serve an additional six years, taking his total time in prison to 28 years.

The judge noted the aims of criminal punishment, namely retribution, deterrence, prevention and retribution.

Justice Cottle said he saw no reason to depart from the sentencing guidelines in the case.

He noted that the maximum sentence for manslaughter is life imprisonment, a notional sentence of 30 years.

Justice Cottle pointed out that manslaughter is a serious crime in that the consequence is always the death of the victim.

The judge established a starting point of 15 years in prison.

He said that aggravating of the offence was that Quashie chose to have sex with Browne’s girlfriend on Browne’s bed.

 He knew Browne was nearby and could return anytime.

“It would be no surprise that a man might respond with some level of violence when confronted with gross infidelity in the circumstances,” Justice Cottle said.

He said he found Quashie’s actions mildly aggravating of the offence.

Mitigating of the offence was that Quashie had first acted to protect Francis from the attack of her enraged partner.

Aggravating of the offender was that he was convicted of multiple counts of unlawful sexual intercourse and committed manslaughter while on bail for the sex offences.

The court concluded that the mitigating and aggravating features balanced each other out and made no further adjustments to the sentence.

The judge further awarded Quashie the full one-third discount for his guilty plea, leaving him a sentence of 10 years.

The court then subtracted from the sentence the one year, eight months and 10 days that Quashie spent on remand, leaving a sentence of eight years, one month and 20 days.

The judge said that consistent with the guidelines, Quashies sentence should be served after he had completed his existing prison terms.

However, on considering the totality principle, Justice Cottle concluded that the sentence he had arrived at exceeded what was necessary to reflect Quashie’s overall offending.

He said that taking into account Quashie’s age and the length of the sentences he was currently serving, the sentence for manslaughter would be reduced to five years.

The court concluded that there were no issues of parole to be addressed.

Renee Simmons appeared for the Crown during the sentencing hearing but Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions, Karim Nelson was also on record.

Kay Bacchus-Baptiste represented Quashie.