Seven years, seven months’ jail for murder

AZARD ALI

NICHOLAS HABIB, 31, of Chacon Street, San Fernando, was sentenced to seven years and seven months in jail Wednesday for a 2005 murder inside the Cover Girls restaurant on Carib Street during a robbery.

Habib and two other men were charged with the murder of Princes Town contractor Gerard Bocas.

He pleaded guilty in accordance with the murder-felony rule and Justice Hayden St Clair Douglas passed sentence on him in the San Fernando High Court.

The murder-felony rule is based on the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council’s decision that not every finding of guilt for murder warrants the death penalty.

A sentencing review was held for Habib and he agreed to enter the guilty plea.

The robbery took place on October 3, when two men entered the restaurant and announced a hold-up.

Kwasie Ford, 34, of Lower Hillside, San Fernando, was also charged with Bocas’ murder. When he first appeared in the San Fernando magistrates’ court, Ford tried to hang himself. He had taken off his T-shirt and tied it around an iron bar and around his neck. Other prisoners raised an alarm.

In passing sentence Wednesday on Habib, St Clair Douglas said that during the robbery, Bocas and Brian Davis were shot and Bocas died.

Habib was also charged with wounding and robbery of a wallet, cell phone, ID card and $40.

State attorney Anju Bhola prosecuted while attorney Subhas Panday pleaded Habib’s case.

St Clair Douglas said that a probation officer’s report revealed Habib lacked empathy, showed little remorse and demonstrated a weak ability to control his behaviour.

But these traits, the judge added, was no reason to compound the punishment the court intended for him. A starting point would be 30 years in jail, he added, and a third of that must be discounted for Habib’s guilty plea. St Clair Douglas said from the remaining 20 years, the court must discount the 12 years and five months he spent in jail awaiting trial, which leaves seven years and seven months.

St Clair Douglas also sentenced Habib to seven years for wounding, six years for robbery and six years for assault. The sentences are to run concurrently.

Comments

"Seven years, seven months’ jail for murder"

More in this section