Prison officer to be sentenced for wife's death

AN ex-prison officer who went on trial for the murder of his estranged wife more than a decade ago was on Tuesday found guilty of a lesser count of manslaughter by a San Fernando jury.

Kendall Henry, of Serenity Drive, Couva, was before Justice Gail Gonzales and a 12-member jury who followed the evidence from the Judiciary’s judicial centre in O’Meara, Arima.

Henry was accused of killing his wife Tricia James-Henry on December 28, 2009. He was a prison officer at the time while his wife worked at the National Gas Company.

After retiring for one and a half hours, the jury returned with their verdict of not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter. Henry will be sentenced by Gonzales on September 20.

It was the State’s case, presented by prosecutor Indira Chinebas, that the couple got into an argument because of a message Henry allegedly saw which said his wife wanted him to leave the house. Henry took up a piece of wood and told James-Henry to leave his house. A neighbour who was visiting heard screams from the house after she left.

James-Henry’s parents testified at the trial, saying they were on holiday in Mayaro when they got a distress call from their daughter before the call was abruptly cut off.

They called relatives to go to the house to check on her. James-Henry’s mother tried calling her daughter’s phone and Henry answered. Henry was heard telling his wife her mother wanted to speak with her but she never came to the phone.

James-Henry’s father, Pastor Oswald James, spoke to his son-in-law and asked him why he was harassing his daughter and was told she did not want to leave the house before Henry ended the call.

James-Henry’s two aunts, an uncle and a family friend went to the couple’s home and called repeatedly, but got no answer. When they looked into the house, they saw blood on the floor and saw Henry sitting on a chair in the back room with a large knife in his hands and rubbing his fingers along the blade.

They called out to him to open the door but he did not respond and they saw him going into a bathroom. The group broke open the front door and saw Henry in the bathroom with both of his wrists slit. He was bleeding from his wounds.

They then went to a bedroom and found James-Henry’s body on a bed with stab wounds about the body and her throat was slit.

An autopsy by State pathologist Dr Easlyn McDonald-Burris said there were 19 injuries - some stab wound, others superficial- to the front of the body from the neck to the thighs. There was also a cut to her neck which completely severed her windpipe. Her lungs and liver were also ruptured.

Henry gave a statement to the police and also testified in his defence. He said on the night the incident took place, he got home and met his wife having drinks with the neighbour. He said an argument started because of a message his wife wrote about him, then she began behaving hysterically. Henry claimed she pulled a knife on him and he took it from her and put it on the counter.

He said his wife took up the knife again and ran to the back of the house while knocking over furniture. Henry followed her to her bedroom and claimed he told her he just wanted to talk to her. He forced open the door and he said she swung at him with the knife, cutting him on the right wrist. Henry said he took the knife, lost all self-control and did not remember what happened in the bedroom after that.

He said the next thing he knew, he was in the toilet. He also admitted to wanting to take his own life and cut his wrists because he knew he was going to lose everything.

Henry also claimed his wife was unfaithful for years and he had filed for divorce the month before the incident. Henry's attorney Evans Welch urged the jury to consider manslaughter by reason of loss of self-control or in the alternative acquit him if they believed he was first attacked by his wife.