A 40-year-old man who admitted he stabbed his wife to death in a fit of rage has been acquitted of murder.
Instead, Raffique Mohammed, of Mayo Road, Tortuga, was found guilty on the lesser count of manslaughter and was sentenced to 30 years’ imprisonment with hard labour.
However, Mohammed would only serve 23 years in prison, as the seven years he spent in remand while awaiting trial were deducted from his sentence.
Mohammed was before Justice Geoffrey Henderson and a 12-member jury in the Port-of-Spain Fourth Criminal Court charged with the murder of his wife Marian Paul-Mohammed.
Paul-Mohammed was stabbed to death at her home on School Street, Edinburgh Village, Chaguanas, on June 19, 2006.
During the trial, which began in March, evidence was led that months before the incident, Paul-Mohammed sought a protection order against her husband.
Henderson said he considered Mohammed’s breach of the order when he decided on the lengthy sentence.
He advised Mohammed he should have left the volatile relationship.
The couple’s children, who were eight and nine at the time of their mother’s murder, testified against their father.
Their son, Shazard, told jurors on the night of the incident he heard his parents arguing.
“My mummy was going to the kitchen and when she was reaching for the door, that was when Daddy gave her a stab in her throat with a knife,” he said.
Shazard, now a teenager, said after the initial stab, his father repeatedly stabbed his mother until she stopped moving. Mohammed then briefly spoke to his children and ran away.
A post-mortem showed that Paul-Mohammed died of multiple stab wounds to the neck. Her throat was also severed. Mohammed was arrested by police shortly after and later gave a confession statement which was admitted as evidence in the trial.
In the statement, Mohammed claimed he and his wife were having problems in their marriage and he was trying to rekindle their relationship.
He accused her of being a drug addict and of abandoning their children when they were younger. He also claimed she was unfaithful.
Blood tests done after her death showed Paul-Mohammed was a habitual marijuana user.
Mohammed is being represented by Mario Merritt and Ayana Humphrey, while Angelica Teelucksingh prosecuted.