A 62-year-old man who admitted to killing his common-law wife in a domestic dispute several years after he completed a prison sentence for killing his pregnant ex-girlfriend in a similar incident, has been sentenced to just over 17 years in prison.
Winston Joseph was awaiting trial for murder before his lawyer Michelle Ali, from the Public Defenders’ Department, negotiated a plea agreement with the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) in mid-March.
At a hearing yesterday morning, High Court Judge Devan Rampersad approved the agreement which recommended a 24-year sentence on the lesser offence of manslaughter. However, he applied a two-year increase in the sentence based on Joseph’s previous manslaughter conviction for killing his ex-girlfriend.
Joseph is expected to be released in almost six months as Justice Rampersad applied a one-third discount for his guilty plea and deducted the time he spent in prison awaiting trial.
In May 1994, Joseph was convicted of manslaughter by a 12-member jury and was sentenced to five years in prison. He was accused of murdering 35-year-old Pansy Wiltshire at their apartment in Maloney Gardens, Arouca, on March 16, 1991.
On the night of her murder, the couple’s next-door neighbour reported hearing Wiltshire flogging her son and accusing him of lying. When the neighbour went to the couple’s apartment the following morning, her son claimed that his mother was still sleeping.
Shortly after, Wiltshire’s sister contacted the police and asked them to check up on her sister. Wiltshire was found dead on her bed covered with a sheet up to her neck. A post-mortem revealed that she had been strangled.
When Joseph was held by the police, he confessed to killing Wiltshire. He said when he arrived home, Wiltshire was not at home and her son told him that she had spent the day with her former romantic partner.
He claimed that when she returned home from a neighbour’s house, he confronted her over the allegation. He alleged that Wiltshire flogged her son and sent him to his room while she continued her argument with Joseph.
Joseph said during the argument, she pulled a knife on him and he choked her in self-defence. He admitted that he placed her body on the bed and covered it before running away.
In the recent case, Joseph was accused of killing Ann-Marie Mark on October 4, 2003. Joseph met Mark after completing his prison sentence and the couple lived together at Mark’s home on Factory Road, Diego Martin.
Mark’s son and daughter reported hearing their mother arguing with Joseph. The son intervened but his mother told him to continue getting ready for work.
They heard their mother scream and saw Joseph running away from their house. They found their mother with a stab wound to her chest. She was taken to a hospital but died while receiving treatment.
Joseph evaded capture but was eventually arrested at a construction site in Woodbrook in July 2007 after Mark’s daughter saw him working there. He initially denied any wrongdoing.
“I doh know nothing about that, allyuh trying to frame me or what?” he reportedly told the police.
In her mitigation plea, Ali said Joseph admitted that he had anger management issues but claimed he learned to control it during his lengthy stay in prison.
“He instructs that the conditions in prison have taught him self-control after having to cohabit with many inmates from different backgrounds,” she said.
“He indicates that anger management will no longer affect his life and justification for his assertion can be found in the fact that he has no infractions to the prison rules during his lengthy period of incarceration,” she added, as she noted that he participated in yoga classes and religious programmes while in prison.
Ali added that he was remorseful and wanted to apologise to Mark’s relatives for his actions.
Joseph was also represented by Shuzvon Ramdass, while Veonna Neale-Munroe and Lindianne Marshall appeared for the state.
