“Pastry Man” appeals life sentence over killing of teen peacemaker

Anthony Jones, who was sentenced to life imprisonment after pleading guilty to a manslaughter charge, has filed an appeal against the jail term, contending that it is not only “excessive” but not in “keeping with the principles applicable to an appropriate sentence”.

In August, Jones was sentenced to life imprisonment by Justice Sandil Kissoon for killing a 19-year-old man for intervening in a row and stopping him from assaulting his reputed wife.
Known as “Pastry Man”, 41-year-old Anthony Jones was initially indicted for the October 13, 2018 murder of Nyron Vyphuis which occurred at Yarrowkabra on the Linden-Soesdyke Highway. However, upon his arraignment, he opted to plead guilty to the lesser count of manslaughter.
Reports are that Jones, and his common-law wife were at their liquor shop imbibing when a heated argument broke out between them during which he started to hit her.

Upon seeing this, Vyphuis intervened and stopped the man from hitting his spouse.
As a result, an enraged Jones armed himself with an axe and went after the teen. Upon seeing this, another man who was also drinking at the shop disarmed Jones who left and went home.
But he subsequently returned with a knife and attacked Vyphuis, whom he stabbed to the chest.
In a bid to escape his attacker, Vyphuis ran a short distance before collapsing into a clump of bushes. His relatives rushed him to the Georgetown Public Hospital where he was pronounced dead. During a sentencing hearing, Jones begged the family of the deceased for forgiveness.
“I am asking for the family to forgive me for what I have done. I have accepted my fault. [Judge Kissoon] I am asking you to please be lenient in whatever decision you come to; please forgive me. I have already asked the Lord for forgiveness,” he pleaded.
Cassie Vyphuis, the dead man’s sister, expressed that her brother’s untimely demise has plunged her family into a deep state of mourning. Through a victim impact statement, the woman disclosed that her brother was killed a few months after their father passed away. “I still cannot come to grips with not having my loving brother anymore.”
For his part, Justice Kissoon told Jones that by his actions, he demonstrated scant regard for the sanctity of life. “In a deliberate and unprovoked act of brutality and violence”, the Judge told the confessed killer that he launched a ruthless attack on Vyphuis, who was a mere youth.
“In carrying out this despicable deed, Anthony Jones armed himself with an axe and then a knife before setting upon this unarmed youth whose acts and intervention perhaps saved the spouse of Anthony Jones from further acts of abuse and violence… you launched an attack on a peacemaker and you inflicted that fatal injury to his heart, killing him…”
The Judge told the convict, “As a consequence of your criminal act, parents have lost a child, siblings have lost a brother. The community has been deprived of a fine, worthy, upstanding member whose attributes were just and righteous…”
The High Court Judge, in arriving at an appropriate sentence for him, considered the aggravating and mitigating factors and was keen to point out that the latter cannot take away from the gravity of the offence. Jones becomes eligible for parole after serving 20 years in prison.
This case was heard at the High Court in Demerara. (G1)