A High Court Judge has deferred the sentencing of a woman, who admitted to arranging the murder of her friend and stealing her newborn baby, to obtain more information on the mental health treatments available to her in prison.
Justice Althea Alexis-Windsor was expected to sentence Kerry-Ann Hosang during a hearing at the Hall of Justice in Port-of-Spain, yesterday morning, but was forced to postpone the case after hearing submissions from her defence attorneys and prosecutors.
Alexis-Windsor’s decision was based on the fact that neither of the two parties was able to provide sufficient details on the psychological or psychiatric treatments Hosang received, during the 14 years she spent on remand before being allowed to plead guilty to felony murder, earlier this year.
Under the felony murder rule, judges are given the discretion to waive the mandatory death penalty in murder cases where death results in the commission of a lesser criminal offence.
Before adjourning the case to next Wednesday, Alexis-Windsor issued summons for two prison officers, who could provide the requested information.
Presenting submissions on Hosang’s behalf, her lawyer Keith Scotland suggested that a 24-years prison term should be the starting point in sentencing exercise.
Scotland asked Alexis-Windsor to also consider that Hosang had a clean criminal record before being charged for the crime and that her participation could be attributed to her turbulent childhood.
State prosecutor Maria Lyons-Edwards disagreed. She said while Hosang pleaded guilty to the lesser offence she never accepted responsibility for her actions.
She suggested that a 30-year sentence would be more appropriate.
Alexis-Windsor did not reveal her thoughts on the maximum sentence for Hosang, but stated that she would not have to spend an extended period in prison, as she is entitled to an automatic one-third discount on the maximum sentence for her guilty plea and the time she spent awaiting trial will be deducted from her discounted sentence.
According to the agreed facts in the case, that was produced through consultation with prosecutors and Hosang’s defence attorneys, Kissoon’s body was found at her home at Phase 7, La Horquetta, Arima, on September 3, 2005. She had a chop wound to her neck which severed her trachea and damaged her spine.
Police were taken to the location by Kissoon’s friend who had reported her and her newborn daughter missing after not hearing from them for several days.
When initially confronted by police at her home in Maracas/St Joseph several days later, Hosang claimed that she and Kissoon were close friends and that she (Kissoon) left the child with her.
Hosang claimed that she heard through the media that Kissoon had been murdered but chose not to contact the police as her family believed it was hers.
“Her rationale was that her friends and family knew she was pregnant but didn’t know she had miscarried,” the statement said.
Hosang changed her tune after investigators confronted her, several days later.
Hosang claimed that she knew Kissoon for six years and loaned her $5,000 in January 2005.
Hosang said that after Kissoon repeatedly refused to repay the sum, she paid two men to threaten her into honouring their agreement on two separate occasions.
She stated that after the two failed attempts, she decided to hire two other men to kidnap Kissoon’s baby.
Hosang claimed that she planned to keep the baby until Kissoon repaid the money.