La Horquetta man pleads guilty to 2015 hammer killing

A La Horquetta man who delivered a "constant beating" to a relative with a cutlass, after being struck on the head with a hammer over the way a female relative was being looked after, has been sentenced by a High Court judge.

Justice Lisa Ramsumair-Hinds sentenced Michael Anthony Jones, also known as Herbie, 67, on October 9.

He will serve two years and six months of hard labour for the death of Stephen Vialva on April 8, 2015.

Jones was initially charged with Vialva’s murder. However, he was allowed to plead guilty to manslaughter based on provocation in a plea deal with the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.

The judge accepted the plea deal and Jones was sentenced after he pleaded guilty.

“ I spent so much time in here, I really needed to get it done,” he said of his decision to accept responsibility.

The judge said the evidence clearly showed provocation was involved, as Jones was struck on his forehead with a hammer while he slept.

“As a matter of fact, in the photographs, you can see evidence of what looks like blood on the mattress that he would have been sleeping on.”

However, she said Jones’s response to being hit with the hammer involved “sheer gratuitous violence.

“The accused did not even get up off of the body until the police arrived and told him to get up.”

She also spoke of an attempt to gouge out Vialva’s eyes during the attack.

Ramsumair-Hinds accepted the 20-year sentence agreed to in the plea deal and gave Jones a two-year downward adjustment for his “clear remorse” and conduct in prison.

Jones also received his one-third discount for his guilty plea and the nine years and six months he spent remanded were also deducted leaving him with two years and six months left to serve.

“You'll be released before you turn 70. Good luck.”

The attack took place in the wee hours of the morning at the family’s home at Aldwyn Roberts Crescent.

Jones told police he was asleep when Vialva “hit him a hammer” on his head and “in a fit of rage,” he woke up and defended himself.

Vialva died at the house.

His sister Gertrude handed over the cutlass and hammer to the police.

While at the Arima Health Centre, Jones again told police what took place.

“I wake up with a blow from a hammer in my head. And I see him, and he hit me again.

“I trying to reason with him. I say, ‘What's going on?’ and he hit me again. He said, ‘I will kill you here tonight.’ He said, 'You hit my mother.'

‘I said, ‘I'm caring for your mother. How am I going to hit your mother?’

“He said, ‘You have to leave this house tonight, or I will kill you tonight,’” was the exchange Jones had with the police.

He also admitted he told Gertrude he was “not getting up until the police reach. When I see the police, I will get up.”

Jones signed the notes of his conversation with police before he was charged with Vialva’s murder.

He was represented by Adaphia Tancuso-Ribero of the Public Defenders Department. Charmaine Samuel also appeared for the Office of the DPP.