Man pleads guilty to La Brea murder, forgoes trial

A Port of Spain man has possibly become the first to plead guilty to capital murder, forgoing a trial and subjecting himself to the mandatory death sentence.

On October 14, Justice Lisa Ramsumair-Hinds read the death sentence to Ronald Cobham after she agreed to accept his guilty plea.

He was represented by public defenders Avionne Bruno-Mason and Collin Elbourne. Charmaine Samuel and Guiliana Guy appeared for the State.

The judge admitted this was “not a typical case” and was an “unusual occurrence.”

From as early as May 2023, when Cobham appeared before her, he indicated he wanted to plead guilty.

His attorneys from the Public Defenders Department wrote to the Director of Public Prosecutions for plea-deal discussions. The judge said all attempts at a plea deal broke down and the DPP, in rejecting Cobham’s entreaties, ordered that the matter should proceed to trial.

But Ramsumair-Hinds said Cobham maintained he wanted to plead guilty and did not want to go to trial. She warned him she had no discretion at all in sentencing, since murder still carried the mandatory death penalty.

“In a hardly veiled attempt to discourage him, I could not assure him of a commutation, however remote the likelihood, and (said he) he would be remanded to the condemned section (of the prison) and lawfully executed.”

She also said his attorneys discussed with him the consequences of pleading guilty to capital murder.

“He understands clearly. There was no wavering or vacillating on his part.”

At Monday’s sentencing hearing, the judge called Dr Samuel Shafe, medical director at the St Ann’s Psychiatric Hospital, to testify to Cobham’s fitness to plead.

Shafe said Cobham understood the charges against him.

The judge said with the State’s position that it could not accept a plea for anything other than murder, and Cobham unwilling to go to trial, she accepted his guilty plea.

She also said she was assured it was not a case of “suicide by court.”

Ramsumair-Hinds again advocated for the categorisation of capital murder. She said the death penalty for murder with the requisite intent (as opposed to felony murder, where the intention was not to kill, which does not carry an automatic death sentence) remained valid because of the savings law clause – which protects pre-existing colonial laws and make them immune to constitutional challenge – “even if (the death penalty) has been viewed as cruel and unusual punishment."

She referred to the 2022 TT case of Jay Chandler in the Privy Council, which held that the punishment, though deemed cruel and unusual internationally, was not unconstitutional and will remain on this country’s statute books as the punishment for murder.

Ramsumair-Hinds also referred to the law lords’ rebuke in the Chandler case for keeping the hangman’s noose.

“It is striking that there remains on the statute book a provision which, as the government accepts, is a cruel and unusual punishment because it mandates the death penalty without regard to the degree of culpability,” she repeated from the ruling.

Trinidad and Tobago is the only country in the English-speaking Caribbean that retains the mandatory death penalty.

In Cobham’s case, she said his plea was voluntary and remained a good plea, but added, “We have been having conversation on the mandatory death penalty being cruel and unusual punishment and categorising the murder.

“All that is required is to amend section 4 of the Offences Against the Person Act.”

She said TT could look to the region, the Commonwealth and the US and choose what version of categorisation of murder it wanted to adopt.

“It would promote efficiency,” she said, noting there were over 40 inmates on death row who have exhausted appeals and are yet to be hanged.

“The DPP’s department can attest that every judge (in the criminal division) has on their docket a number of cases for resentencing. The death penalty is not being carried out.”

Invariably, she said, a sentence must be commuted and the prisoner will return to a judge for resentencing.

But, she noted, “There are other factors to consider as well.”

Ramsumair-Hinds said there were some 1,000 people in the system charged with murder, and from her calculations it cost taxpayers $200,000 a year to house one prisoner.

She also said inmates on death row were also deprived of many things, including visitors and participating in prison programmes.

“I am simply saying, once again, we might want to take a look at the saving law clause which stifles our sovereignty…We just celebrated 48 years as a republic, (but) our Constitution continues to shield antiquated laws long rejected by the colonial masters themselves.”

Cobham also spoke before the death sentence was read to him. Speaking from the O’Meara Judicial Centre, Arima, where the San Fernando case was heard, he said since his incarceration he had found religion.

“I realise what I did was heinous and want to bring closure to the case and victims. That’s why I want to plead guilty. I want to say sorry and find forgiveness. Hope I didn't waste no time.”

He also explained his motive had been to avenge a female friend who told him someone at the bar she worked “made a move on her.”

He said he took it “on myself” to commit the act.

Cobham was charged with the murder on July 11, 2014 of Marvin Campbell, in La Brea.

Campbell, 40, of Sobo Village, La Brea, was shot and killed at his workplace, Dream Girls Restaurant and Bar and Mini Mart. Police intercepted a vehicle in which Cobham was a passenger along South Oropouche Road and found a 9 mm firearm with 13 rounds of ammunition.

He had gone with a friend on a search for a car part. They first ventured to Chase Village and then Point Fortin. When they did not get the part, they chose to go to Vessigny Beach for food and beers.

They then went to Dream Girls bar. Witnesses at the bar reported to police hearing someone shout, “Aye, Marvin, take this,” before three gunshots were heard. A witness also saw the side of Cobham’s face.

His friend told him to get out the car when he returned and tried hiding the gun under the back seat.

Cobham told the friend, “I shoot a man,” and told him to drive.

He took off his jersey and threw it out of the car window, together with a hat he was wearing. Police then stopped them in South Oropouche and found the gun, which was not fully hidden under the car seat.

Cobham’s friend took the police to La Brea where they found the hat.

CCTV footage was also retrieved and shown to Cobham when he was arrested.

As the death sentence was read out to him, Ramsumair-Hinds had everyone in the courtroom in O’Meara stand while Cobham bowed his head as he was told he would be taken to a prison where he would suffer death by hanging.”

“May God have mercy on your soul,” were her final words to Cobham.