Appeal Court reduces jail term for convicted murder

The Court of Appeal on Wednesday reduced the jail term of convicted murderer Clive Knights to 30 years imprisonment after the hearing into the case concluded before Chancellor of the Judiciary Yonette Cummings-Edwards and Justices Dawn Gregory and Rishi Persaud.
The appeal was filed following his conviction in 2015 by a High Court jury for the murder of 44-year-old Bert Whyte, a former Assistant Secretary at the Guyana and Trinidad Mutual Life (GTM). Whyte was stabbed several times by Knights after he (Whyte), without consent, engaged in sexual acts with the convicted man whilst he was asleep. For the capital offence, Knights was sentenced to 57 years imprisonment by Justice Navindra Singh.
The appeal was filled by Attorney-at-Law Dexter Todd earlier this year.
The lawyer argued that Knights did not receive proper legal representation throughout his High Court trial which took place in 2015. Todd further contended that the evidence presented in the trial did not disclose any previous actions which prove that Knights intentionally committed the crime, but rather, revealed that his client was defending himself from being sexually assaulted, and thus, the conviction was not suitable.
Prosecutor for the State, Sarah Gooding, in her address to the panel of judges, noted that Knight’s previous attorney did advise him that he could exercise the right to remain silent when the prosecution had closed their case against him. According to Gooding’s, Knights adhered to the advice and at no time indicated that he was not allowed to address the High Court in either an unsworn statement or by leading his defence.
Police reports indicated that on May 12, 2014, Whyte, formerly of Phoenix Park, West Bank Demerara (WBD), along with Knights, had visited a bar where they began imbibing. Sometime after, the convicted murderer visited Whyte’s motorcar and fell asleep, in the midst of same, Knights was allegedly awaken to the now dead man performing sexual acts on him.
Reports are it was then the murder convict armed himself with an ice picker and inflicted several stab wounds about Whyte’s body. Knights, after committing the act, fled the scene, whilst public spirited persons later rushed the victim to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) where he died while receiving medical attention.
The convict was later apprehended and admitted to the crime, for which he will now serve a 30-year sentence term. A Post-Mortem Examination (PME) conducted on the body of Whyte revealed that he died from haemorrhage and shock due the perforation of the heart and lungs as a result of the stab wounds he sustained.