Tunapuna man sentenced for drunken wedding-venue killing

A Tunapuna handyman is expected to serve out the year and four months left on his sentence for fatally stabbing another man in a drunken stupor outside a wedding venue in 2016.

On April 29, Pooran Lall was sentenced by Justice Lisa Ramsumair-Hinds, who said she could not order his conditional release.

“A man is dead,” she said.

She started with an 18-year sentence and made the necessary deductions for his guilty plea, the time he has spent on remand and mitigating factors that went to his benefit.

“His release date is not too far,” she said, urging Lall to use his remaining time in prison to prepare for his reintegration into society.

She also told him to “never find himself in wrongdoing.

“Spend the remainder of your days in harmony with the law.”

On April 24, Lall pleaded guilty to fatally stabbing 33-year-old Kevin Joseph of Green Street, Tunapuna, on April 24, 2016, on Pasea Extension Road. He was allowed to plead guilty to manslaughter based on provocation.

Lall was at a job site opposite the wedding venue when he started drinking and argued with Joseph, who was also drinking and dancing outside the wedding.

Lall stabbed Joseph once in the chest.

“Although not a guest, he was happily drunk,” the judge said.

She also described the incident as brazen, committed in “daylight hours on a public road in the presence of a wedding gathering that included children.”

She pointed out that one of the witnesses was a form four student.

“A dead body lying on the road amid the cacophony resulting from the incongruous mixture of wedding music and police sirens,” was how she described the scene on the day of the killing.

Last week, prosecutor Charmaine Samuel, as she read out the facts at the plea-deal hearing, said, “After stabbing the deceased, (Lall) continued to wine as the deceased stumbled away.”

Hours later, Lall went to the home of a friend and confessed to stabbing Joseph, whom he knew from the Tunapuna market.

Lall initially confessed when he was arrested, and his attorneys, public defenders Darryl Douglas and Kameika Peters, urged the judge to consider Lall’s remorse.

“He has expressed a kind of remorse that is uncommon. A lot of prisoners may find religion in prison. Many may talk the talk but not walk the walk. He is not one of them,” Douglas said.

Also to his benefit were the support he has from his family, including his elderly but ailing mother and his intention to engage in farming when released and continue with handyman and odd jobs in his community.