The Court of Appeal has overturned the murder conviction of 55-year-old Foster Gravesande, replacing it with a conviction for manslaughter by reason of provocation and reducing his 56-year prison sentence to 15 years.
Gravesande, a father of three, had been convicted in December 2020 and sentenced in January 2021 to 56 years’ imprisonment, with no possibility of parole until he had served 28 years.
He had been found guilty of striking his neighbour, Courtney Porter, 49, of Mahaica, East Coast Demerara (ECD) on the head with a piece of wood, causing injuries that later resulted in his death.
Porter was injured during the March 25, 2017 altercation. He was hospitalised following the incident but succumbed to his injuries on April 9, 2017.
A post-mortem examination found that he died from a fractured skull and neck, along with trauma to the brain.
Three eyewitnesses testified for the prosecution.
The defence, however, maintained that the incident arose after Porter confronted Gravesande’s wife in the street, tearing her clothing and grabbing her.
The defence said Gravesande twice demanded that Porter release his wife before throwing a stick in his direction. His lawyers relied on self-defence, accident and provocation.
The appeal challenged the reasonableness of the murder verdict, the trial judge’s handling of the defences and the severity of the sentence imposed.
The appellate court rejected the argument that the murder verdict was unreasonable.
It found that the trial judge had properly addressed inconsistencies and omissions in the prosecution’s evidence and explained to the jury how they should assess those matters.
The court also found that the jury had been properly directed on self-defence and accident, including the prosecution’s responsibility to disprove those defences.
However, the judges found a significant error in the way provocation was left to the jury.
Although the trial judge had correctly outlined the law governing provocation, the court found that he had failed to apply those principles to the evidence supporting the defence.
In particular, he did not adequately connect the law to the alleged assault on Gravesande’s wife and Gravesande’s repeated demands that Porter release her.
The Court of Appeal held that this amounted to a material misdirection because it deprived Gravesande of proper consideration of the provocation defence by the jury.
The judges said they could not be satisfied that a properly directed jury would inevitably have found him guilty of murder.
As a result, the murder conviction could not stand.
Rather than ordering a retrial, the appellate court substituted a conviction for manslaughter by reason of provocation.
In determining the new sentence, the court took into account that the fatal incident involved a single blow with a weapon of opportunity and appeared to have occurred spontaneously.
The judges established a starting point of 18 years but reduced it to 15 years after considering mitigating circumstances.
These included Gravesande being a first-time offender, having no history of violence and having acted in response to the assault on his wife.
The court found no aggravating factors warranting an increase in the sentence.
The 15-year sentence runs from the date of his original sentencing. The nearly four years Gravesande spent on remand are to be deducted, leaving him with approximately 11 years remaining to serve.
Gravesande had been tried in the High Court before Justice Navindra Singh, who was then a High Court judge.
Gravesande has since applied for leave to appeal the decision to the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).
Gravesande was represented by attorneys Nigel Hughes and Kiswana Jefford of Hughes, Fields & Stoby, while Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions Mercedes Glasford appeared for the Director of Public Prosecutions.
