One of this island’s top prosecutors says the sentences suggested by defence lawyers for the killers of popular fish vendor Stephen Molly Small are “nothing short of embarrassing and a slap in the face” of the dead man’s family and friends as well as the criminal justice system.
Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Alliston Seale was responding to submissions by attorneys Verla De Peiza and Sian Lange.
De Peiza had recommended that her client, Dave Fedel Aristide James, a labourer of Church Village, St Philip who pleaded guilty to non-capital murder, be given a starting sentence of 20 years in prison. Lange, meanwhile, proposed a 16-year starting sentence for James’ accomplice, Verena Isilma Vasilka Cuffy, a fish boner, of Wavell Gardens, Black Rock, St Michael, who pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
The two had admitted to their roles in Small’s stabbing death on September 7, 2018.
“You snuff his life out . . . . How can we sufficiently address it by saying 16 years before discount; 20 years before discount . . . . You can’t be serious,” Seale said.
“When you understand the dynamics of how this thing emanated, you can’t deal with it lightly . . . . Are we serious? What price are we putting on the lives of our citizens when we come in these courtrooms? I know it is not all about retribution, and I understand the concept of rehabilitation, but how much is a life worth?”
The deputy DPP told Madam Justice Laurie-Ann Smith-Bovell on Friday that in light of the non-capital murder plea, “we have to be very serious and send a serious message to the offenders of murder . . . . We have to make it distinctly clear that when you do murder in Barbados, you do no less than 40 years [in prison].”
“So 20 years . . . to quote my friend [De Peiza], when she says she doesn’t believe it will do a disservice, I believe it will be an embarrassment; nothing short of embarrassing and a slap in the face to the criminal justice system and to the family and friends of Stephen Molly Small,” he added.
The prosecutor submitted to the No. 4 Supreme Court that a starting sentence of 40 years in prison should be imposed on James after which the necessary deductions should be granted.
In Cuffy’s case, he said, a starting sentence at the top end of 25 years, as she was the mastermind for the plan to rob Small in George Street, St Michael.
“All the while, she sitting in the car like an innocent agent playing she ain’t know what happening . . . . She goes to the hospital with him . . . . Investigations led [police] to the money belonging to Molly under a gas bottle at her house. So, even though Molly gets stabbed, she couldn’t have a conscience enough to say, ‘Oh Lord, the plan now foiled’. She still thief de man money,” Seale said as he referred to some of the facts of the case.
“So a dying man you thief from – that is unconscionable . . . . The now convicted lady ain’t easy. After setting up the man just for a few thousand dollars . . . how could you sit beside a man knowing you carrying him to get robbed? Leave out the murder; how can you sit beside a person that you are leading into a trap and feel comfortable? That’s betrayal of the highest as far as I am concerned.
“You lured the man to his death and telling me you should start at 16 [years in prison] . . . . Is that what a life is worth in those circumstances? I submit ‘no’. I submit that taking all into consideration as far as Cuffy is concerned, her starting point should be between 20 and 25 years, after which any discounts she is rightly entitled to can be made,” the deputy DPP insisted.
James and Cuffy, who were in a relationship at the time they committed the offence, will reappear in court on
September 22.
