Phillip Solomon, a 45-year-old labourer of Timehri, East Bank Demerara (EBD), has been jailed for 10 years for the offence of manslaughter, committed on his friend Vernon Cummings, called “Ervil”, whom he lashed to the head several times with a piece of wood when a drunken argument had broken out between them on October 24, 2018 at Timehri Docks, EBD.
Convicted killer Phillip Solomon
His sentence was handed down by Justice Brassington Reynolds at the Demerara High Court on Tuesday.
Earlier this month, Cummings had appeared before Justice Brassington Reynolds on an indictment for the capital offence of murder, but he opted to plead guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter, thereby admitting that he had killed 51-year-old Vernon Cummings, called “Ervil”.
The two men, who had both been labourers and friends, were together at a wharf at Timehri, where they would normally consume alcohol. On the day in question, while they were imbibing, an argument erupted between them, and based on reports, the now-dead man had armed himself with a piece of iron while Solomon had armed himself with a piece of wood. The two then began lashing each other about the body.
Solomon’s brother was alerted, and he went to the scene and took the piece of iron from Cummings, but his brother dealt Cummings a blow to his head that caused him to fall to the ground. Picked up and rushed to the East Bank Demerara Regional Hospital, the injured Cummings was pronounced dead on arrival.
