Seventeen year sentence for Manslaughter

In Magistrates’ Court today, a hefty serving of bad news was dished out to a Belize City man. Forty-five year old Hubert Bennett was found guilty of Manslaughter and sentenced to seventeen years, retroactive to November seventeenth, 2006 when Bennett was arrested for a second time following the death of an eighteen year old. When the murder of Tiquon Emmanuel first went to court four years ago, a nolle prosequi was entered and Bennett was freed. But he was not as lucky today, even though he expressed remorse about the incident and his attorney, Michael Peyrefitte, gave a mitigation plea and asked that the sentence not exceed fifteen years. An emotional Curlene Emmanuel also took the dock for an impact assessment testimony and told the court that her entire family misses her son. The confrontation that led to Emmanuel’s death occurred on August twentieth, 2005 when he was stabbed twice to the chest over a bicycle. The prosecution was represented by Crown Counsel Trienia Young and the sentence was handed down by Justice Adolph Lucas.