Judge releases mentally ill man with strict conditions

A HIGH COURT judge has released a mentally ill man into the supervision of his mother and has imposed strict conditions for him to follow after he pleaded guilty to killing his neighbour in 2006.

Akim Brown, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia, was before Justice Malcolm Holdip in the Port of Spain First Assizes at the Hall of Justice, Port of Spain, charged with the July 2006 murder of his neighbour Wendy Daniel.

He pleaded guilty to manslaughter by diminished responsibility.

The judge started with a sentence of 12 years, but gave Brown the full three-year-discount for his guilty plea, and also factored into his calculations the eight years and ten months he spent on remand awaiting trial.

In sentencing Brown, Holdip referred to the numerous medical reports of various psychiatrists at the St Ann’s Mental Hospital, a bio-social report compiled by the prison and said he did his own research on the issue of mental health conditions.

Brown, he also said, has repeatedly said he had no recollection of stabbing his neighbour, but from his own interaction with the prisoner, he recognised a fragmentation of Brown’s mind.

In one of the medical reports, Brown, who was examined two days after the stabbing, said he couldn’t control himself, and “heard” Daniel, her boyfriend and other people saying nasty things about him.

He also said he thought she was a prostitute who wanted to kill him.

“Clearly he fits the description of schizophrenia,” the judge said, referring to one of the signs of the condition.

Brown also admitted to the doctors who treated him that he used marijuana heavily.

One of the conditions of Holdip’s sentence is that Brown, while on probation for three years, attend a drug rehabilitation programme at the Caura Hospital.

He was also put in his mother’s custody and is to live with her in La Horquetta. The judge further ordered that he visit the St Ann’s Hospital on Thursday so that he can begin treatment for his mental illness and the Probation’s Officers Department on Monday so that he can be enrolled in a life-skill course.

The judge said the conditions were to ensure that Brown is not a threat to the public, stressing that he needed medical treatment and close supervision.

The State was represented by senior prosecutor Anju Bhola while Brown was represented by John Heath.