An Arima man, who was convicted of murder in October 2009, yesterday was ordered to face a retrial.
Appearing before a panel of judges at the Court of Appeal, Fabien La Roche had his appeal allowed. He is expected to be taken from Death Row and back to remand prison to await trial. Justices of Appeal Paula Mae Weekes, Alice Yorke-Soo Hon and Rajendra Narine accepted two of three grounds put forward by lawyers for the appellant, in coming to their decision. Attorneys Jagdeo Singh and Larry Lalla argued that the trial judge erred in his direction to the jury on the issue of provocation and the intention to kill.
Delivering her written judgment, Weekes said: "We advise that when dealing with the issue of provocation, trial judges specifically direct in clear and unequivocal language that an intention to kill is not inconsistent with provocation." The judge said failure to do that may have deprived the appellant of not guilty on murder but guilty of manslaughter. Joan Honore-Paul appeared for the State. La Roche, of Temple Street, Arima, was sentenced to hang on October 15, 2009, for the murder of Gary Irish, 37, of Temple Street, Arima.
According to the State's case, the victim regularly bullied the appellant and on July 25, 2003, Irish snatched a parcel of La Roche's marijuana before running off. Irish, also called "Scarra", was stabbed five times in his back. He was rushed to hospital but succumbed to his injuries later. During their deliberations, the jury had returned to the Justice Andre Mon Desir for directions on the law relating to provocation. They deliberated for just minutes later and returned with the guilty verdict.