78-year-old man freed after 40 years in prison

AFTER four decades in prison, a Santa Flora man saw freedom on Friday after he was resentenced by a High Court judge for becoming an “animal” and killing his lover in 1982.

Felix Dean, 78, was resentenced by Justice Tricia Hudlin-Cooper on October 11.

He was one of the scores of former death-row prisoners who had their sentences commuted to life and were entitled to be resentenced by a judge, in keeping with a Privy Council ruling and an order of the High Court.

Dean was convicted in March 1987, for the murder of his lover Majorie Singh, whom he called Charmaine.

Hudlin-Cooper described the case as “heinous” and for this reason, felt a life sentence was appropriate.

However, she said a life sentence would not be imposed, because the precedents cautioned against this as Dean’s rehabilitation was possible.

She began with a 48-year sentence for the “singularly deplorable and cumulatively atrocious” aspects of the crime.

From that, she gave him discounts for good behaviour in prison, remorse shown and the “cruel and unusual punishment” he endured on death row before his sentence was commuted.

Dean received full credit for the 42 years and four months he spent in prison, leaving him with nothing remaining on his sentence.

Hudlin-Cooper said the prison infirmary said Dean’eyesight was failing because of diabetes and cataracts.

Throughout his incarceration, Dean’s children and grandchildren visited him, and he has reconciled with his wife, despite his infidelity with Singh, for which he apologised.

Hudlin-Cooper read from a statement he provided for his resentencing hearing and an interview he gave to a newspaper in which he admitted to killing Singh – with whom he also had two children – in a dispute over money.

“She was my outside woman.”

He said after they started arguing over $2,000 he gave her, one of her relatives pushed him and he was hit on the head with a bottle.

“To be honest about it, I get angry.”

He said he saw Singh coming with a cutlass and because he had “a few drinks” in him and the anger, he took the cutlass after “she pelt a chop” and she fell.

“And I started to chop. I knew I chop that girl three times. When the first chop start, no matter how bad you is, when blood start to share, everybody does disappear.” He said he remembered dropping the cutlass and running.

“The pathologist say I chop the woman 14 times. It is true, but I cannot tell you I do it, but I know I had to be doing it.

“So apparently the state of mind I was in was anger and no sense of reason, and I become an animal. I just hit out, because we was never in any kind of dispute to say I have a hate. I don't know what turn me into this.

“I wish I could close that door, because I can’t see what I really did, but I did it. I was not no saint out there, but in a violent life, I never lived it. I don’t know how I committed that murder,” he said in his interview presented to the court at his resentencing hearing.

Hudlin-Cooper acknowledged the differences between remorse and regret and Dean’s expressions of both as she held he did not pose a continuing threat to society.

In its submissions, state attorney Normal Peters, on behalf of the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, recommended a sentence of 42 years.

Dean’s attorneys Israel Khan, SC, Daniel Khan, Ula Nathai-Lutchman, and Davina Inalsingh urged the judge to consider time served and release Dean on the day of sentencing because of his age, his low risk to society and his rehabilitative efforts.