Judge awaits CCJ ruling before sentencing killer

Convicted manslayer Ryan Omar Samuel will have to wait until the New Year to find out what his punishment will be.

When he appeared in the No. 2 Supreme Court on Friday morning, Justice Randall Worrell indicated that he was following closely the outcome of the appeal taken to the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) by another convicted manslayer, Elliston McDonald Greaves, which could have ramifications for Samuel’s sentencing.

The CCJ has reserved its decision in that case until 2022.

“I don’t know what is going to happen but we have to wait and see,” he told Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Alliston Seale and defence counsel Mohia Ma’at. “Elliston Greaves may even be more guideline or sideline, I don’t know.”

Greaves pleaded guilty in 2018 to unlawfully killing Callie-Ann Gill – the mother of his seven children – on December 24, 2015. He was sentenced to serve 16 years in prison but after deductions were made, that was reduced to 13 years and 168 days.

However, through his attorney-at-law Dennis Headley, he appealed the sentence claiming it was excessive. The appeal was subsequently thrown out by the Court of Appeal and has now reached the CCJ.

In the case before Justice Worrell, Samuel was found guilty of manslaughter in the shooting death of 25-year-old Charley Dume on April 26, 2014.

The judge has adjourned the matter until January 13, 2022.