Woman gets twenty years for abetment

The charge of abetment is not one that is reported often, but anyone who is charged with that offense can expect a maximum sentence of twenty years. Today, a jury of five women and four men deliberated and found twenty-eight year old Delita Chavez guilty of Abetment of Dangerous Harm on thirty-three year old Kimberly Myers. It occurred around nine on the night of July eleventh, 2002 on West Canal Street when Chavez threw a machete to Tanya Cain and told her to use it on Myers. The jury’s verdict was unanimous in finding Chavez guilty and Justice Herbert Lord deferred sentencing until Wednesday, December seventeenth to give Chavez’s attorney, Hubert Elrington time to prepare a plea for mitigation. Chavez was offered a bail of ten thousand dollars. In 2004, Chavez was found not guilty of the charge, but the D.P.P. appealed the decision of the trial judge and the court of appeal ordered a retrial. The prosecution was represented by Director of Public Prosecutions, Cheryl-Lynn Branker-Taitt.