Samuel James, who is serving a 12-year prison sentence for maliciously wounding his wife, lost an appeal yesterday that he hoped would reduce his jail time.
Mr. James, a native of Antigua, allegedly stabbed his estranged wife Loretta Richards multiple times at her sister’s Jennings Hill home on April 11, 2011.
High Court Justice Rita Joseph-Olivetti, who called his crime a “clearly serious offence,” sentenced Mr. James to 12 years in prison on April 3, 2012.
However, defence attorney Charmaine Rosan-Bunbury told the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court of Appeals yesterday that her client’s sentence was excessive.
According to Ms. Rosan-Bunbury, the trial judge did not take into account that Mr. James was a man of good character who had no previous convictions.
The maximum sentence for wounding is life, said the attorney, but she claimed that many defendants in cases of a similar nature often received no more than 10 years.
The court, however, sided with the trial judge, ruling that the sentence was reasonable given that Mr. James inflicted severe injuries on his wife that required extensive treatment.