More than a decade after 23-year-old Barbadian Corey Poleon was the victim in a bizarre case that involved satanic ritual and a “cold, callous, brutal” slaying, a High Court judge allowed the man who killed him to walk free, imposing the time he spent behind bars so far as his sentence.
Justice Wynante Adrien-Roberts on Friday released “with immediate effect to time spent”, Sherman Randolph Webb, who had previously been sentenced to life in prison for the murder of University of the West Indies (UWI) student who was his “friend”, sometime between August 31, 2009, and March 18, 2010.
Webb, a resident of Kings Hill, just east of the capital Roseau, was convicted in 2012 and sentenced to life in prison, but on appeal against the sentence he was granted a retrial by the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (ECSC) and he pleaded guilty to the lesser count of manslaughter nine months ago.
“I sentence you for the offence of manslaughter of Corey Poleon, contrary to the Offence Against the Persons Act Chapter 1031 of the Dominica Revised Laws 1990 to time served. You are hereby released from the Dominica State Prison with immediate effect to time spent,” Justice Adrien-Roberts said on Friday.
During his trial 10 years ago, the court heard that Webb killed Poleon, who visited him after the two met on the Internet, in the community of Elms Hall in east Roseau.
Poleon’s family had reported him missing after he did not return to Barbados. His remains were later found beneath the floorboards of a small wooden house in River Claire, Elms Hall, where, it was revealed, Webb had taken him and “chopped him on both sides of his neck”, causing him to bleed to death.
Webb had maintained his innocence, claiming that Poleon came to visit him in August 2009 to conduct an “occult ceremony which involved the summoning of a demon” that would allow the Barbadian to receive his own guardian spirit.
He told the court that Poleon had returned to Dominica after an initial visit. Two days after his arrival, they went to the house in Elms Hall to conduct the ceremony.
Justice Bernie Stephenson, who had sentenced Webb to life behind bars, described the facts of the case as “unusual and unfortunate and bizarre”.
She described Poleon’s killing as “cold, callous, brutal, calculated and heinous” and said the court needed to send a strong message to society that such acts would not be tolerated.
In his appeal against the sentence, Webb argued he had acted in self-defence and the Appeal Court concluded that the High Court judge did not properly put to the jury the issue of self-defence.
In May last year, Webb appeared before Justice Adrien-Roberts on a manslaughter charge and pleaded guilty.
The judge, in sentencing Webb on Friday, used 15 years as the “benchmark”.
“As it related to the aggravating factors, the court found that the accused hid the body of the deceased in a remote area where it could not be found, and for that reason, the court adjusts the sentencing upwards by a year. As regards the mitigating and aggravating factors of the offender, he gave cooperation to and assisted the police,” the judge said.
Adrien-Roberts said that in assessing the discount, the court had to give consideration to the time the assistance was given to police and the quality of that assistance.
Webb was a “first-time offender” who was remorseful for his actions, writing to Poleon’s family in Barbados to express that remorse, the judge noted.
She said prisoners also regarded him as “an advisor … to them”, assisting them with their paperwork and for these mitigating factors.
“I have examined the chronology of events in this matter and do find that there was a lag in the prosecuting of this matter. [The case] being returned to the High Court on July 5, 2016, for a retrial, the defender remained at the State Prison on a charge of murder until he was indicted on May 4, 2021, on a charge of manslaughter. [He] pleaded guilty to that charge when it was read to him,” Justice Adrien-Roberts said.
The judge cut down the sentence by three months, and because of the guilty plea further reduced it by five years and one month.
Justice Adrien-Roberts said Webb had so far spent 4,156 days in prison since September 16, 2010, the equivalent of 11 years, four months, and 18 days.
(BT/CMC)
