GREAT BAY – The Common Court of Justice sentenced Edsel Servio Romney to 4 years of imprisonment yesterday for attempted manslaughter on a man called Walters on March 12 of last year. Solicitor-general Taco Stein had demanded a 5-year prison sentence but said that he was satisfied with the ruling.
Romney, who celebrated his 37th birthday last Saturday in the Pointe Blanche prison, fired two shots at his victim who was standing on the balcony of a bar in Pointe Blanche. The defendant confessed the shooting to investigators.
A witness at the bar heard the shots and shortly afterwards saw the victim run into the bar holding his right upper leg. The witness went outside and found two shells that he picked up and handed over to the police.
The victim told the police that he had seen how Romney arrived at the bar in his car and that he had lowered the window on the driver’s side. “Suddenly I heard two shots. The first one missed me. The second one hit my right upper leg.”
The court found no proof that Romney acted out of self-defense. The defendant told the court that Walters had pulled a gun from his waistband and that he had fired his shots as an immediate reaction
The court noted that the defendant fired two shots at his victim and that by doing so he endangered his victim’s life. “It is not due to the defendant that the victim only sustained a relatively less serious injury to his leg.”
Source TODAY NEWSPAPER
