Samuel pleased with judge’s sentence

With approximately four months remaining on his eight-year prison sentence, Alaskie “Beaver” Samuel is looking to make up for lost time with his daughter.{{more}}

On November 23, High Court Judge, Frederick Bruce-Lyle sentenced the 27-year-old Redemption Sharpes resident to eight years in prison after he pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

Samuel has been in custody since February 2007.

Samuel, initially charged with murder, pleaded guilty to the lesser count of manslaughter for causing the death of Ishmael Byron, 23, of Campden Park, between April 29 and May 5, 2006 at York Mountains in Campden Park.

Byron’s body was discovered in the York Mountains with a single gunshot wound to his upper back.

Samuel was initially charged, along with Carlo “Bondo” Free and Fitz-Allan “Wizzy” Bramble, both of Sion Hill.

Free and Bramble were freed on September 11, 2007, when two no-case submissions made on their behalf were upheld at the Preliminary Inquiry at the Serious Offences Court.

As police officers led Samuel back to Her Majesty’s Prison, he told SEARCHLIGHT that he was pleased with the judge’s sentence.

“The sentence was good. I been just praying. For the time I been hoping and praying that things will be good and it turn out good,” he said.

The court heard that on the fateful day, the men went to the mountains to conduct a transaction with Byron, when he was shot.

However, the court heard that it was another man who had fired the fatal shot.

Samuel, in a police report had stated that he too fired a shot, but this was after they were leaving the mountain.

His attorney, Kay Bacchus-Browne, said it was Samuel who initiated the process to plead guilty to manslaughter.

“He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. He had a gun, but he did not shoot the deceased. The circumstances of his childhood has left him this way,” Bacchus-Browne said.

A social inquiry report, which deemed Samuel as a good prospect for reform and rehabilitation, stated that he was left in the care of his grandmother at a young age.

The report also stated that Samuel went to stay with his mother, but she did not want him there. He was then forced to grow up with little parental supervision, despite his father taking care of him, financially.

Samuel also said his grandmother was the closest person to him and even after she migrated, she used to send barrels and money for him.

“He feels sad about what has happened because the deceased was innocent and didn’t deserve to die. He has matured and spent five years so far in jail …

“The fact the defendant had a firearm, to me, is the only thing not in his favour. I think five years in jail has worked as a deterrent. He has done his best to show remorse and did not waste the court’s time. He didn’t shoot the victim; he was pulled in,” Bacchus-Browne said.

Justice Bruce-Lyle said that sometimes, because of parental neglect, the state is left with the burden of having to look after somebody.

“You don’t just send things from abroad and leave a child to grow on his own. I believe money and material things are not necessary. Love is what we need more of in this society more than anything else,” Bruce-Lyle said.

“I’ve come to see love disappear from this society. All people care about is money, fast cars and other material things … Because of all this, he gravitated to the ones who showed him love…” the judge added.

Bruce-Lyle said the investigations of the case revealed that it was the bullet from another man’s gun that killed the deceased.

“Firearms were used in the committal of a crime and he was an adult when this happened. I have every reason to actually believe what happened. I blame his family for abandoning him…” Bruce-Lyle stated.

In July, Samuel grabbed headlines when he was caught posting photographs on social networking website, Facebook — an illegal act in prison.

In an interview with the caseworker who prepared the social inquiry report, Samuel said he did it out of frustration with the justice system and the fact that he had been over remand for a lengthy period.