Appeal court grants Israel leave to appeal

Mitchell ‘Mitch’ Israel, who earlier this year was convicted of the murder of his wife and sentenced to 38 years in prison has been granted leave to appeal his conviction and sentence.

Permission to appeal was granted by the Court of Appeal of the East Caribbean Supreme Court (ECSC) on December 19, 2023.

Israel, a 61-year-old former civil servant, was sentenced on November 6, 2023 at High Court #2 in Kingstown by Justice Rickie Burnett.

On August 16, 2023, a jury found that Israel, with malice aforethought, caused the death of his wife of 15 years, Cuban-born nurse Arianna Duharte Taylor Israel by an unlawful act.

The 44-year-old nurse had moved to St Vincent and the Grenadines in 2001 where she worked at the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital. She was shot sometime after 3 pm on January 30 2020, in the vicinity of St Martin’s Secondary School where one of their sons was a student.

The prosecution was led by Director of Public Prosecutions Sejilla Mcdowall and Crown Counsel Richie Maitland, who were assisted by counsel Kaylia Toney, while counsel Linton Lewis and his daughter counsel Maffica Lewis appeared for the defence.