Killer to be returned to Jamaica in wake of appeal
(CNS): A Jamaican national who was jailed for killing his girlfriend when she told him she was leaving him had his sentence reduced by the Court of Appeal last week, effectively freeing the defendant from custody and triggering his deportation to his native country. Collin (Sheldon) Ovid Scott (41) appeared before the Cayman Islands Court of Appeal on Thursday and, with no objections from the crown, his attorney’s application to reduce his 13 year sentence to nine years was granted. As Scott has already served close to six years in prison following his arrest in the wake of the killing in 2007, his release from HMP Northward is now imminent, which will also lead to his deportation to Jamaica.
Scott denied murdering his girlfriend, Maureen Grant, who was 34 at the time of her death in July 2007. He stabbed her three times at the home they shared in West Bay after she told him she was leaving him for another man but pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the basis of provocation in January 2008.
At the time, Grand Court Justice Priya Levers, who had sentenced Scott, said the crown had been generous in accepting the manslaughter charge. Grant, who was also Jamaican, had left the house where she had lived with Scott the day before she was killed. She then returned to collect her possessions from the house on Erenette Lane at 8pm, just before Scott arrived at the house. Soon afterwards he stabbed her during an argument.
Scott handed himself into police within an hour of the stabbing and a doctor found he was suffering from a hysterical stress disorder. The killing was described as spontaneous and almost involuntary.
Scott had no previous criminal convictions, no previous record of violence and had never before raised a hand against the deceased. But had indicated he was not above killing her if she ever left him. He had told relatives that he loved her so much that if he could not love her, no one else would, he had said.
Despite accepting the manslaughter plea, the judge described the case for provocation as extremely borderline when she handed down a 13 year sentence.
In light of a recent decision by the Court of Appeal in the case of Paul Gordon, who was also convicted of manslaughter after he stabbed local DJ Sherman Alvin Bodden, also over a woman, the crown made no objections to the reduction of Scott’s sentence.
Category: Crime
Oh wow. Sentenced to 13yrs now reduced to 6yrs? ridiculous! The victim was my sister. I cannot even say how am feeling rite now reading this but, there is a God. I spoked to her the day before she was killed and she did not tell him she was leaving him for another man. He assumes that. He killed her in cold blood. He threatened he would kill her if she tries to leave him and he did. Thats provocation? Court justice sucks!!
Violence Against Women should not be tolerated on any level, what goes around comes around. My heart go out to the Family of this young woman who lost her life. Sheldon Scott your a coward you will meet your match in JAMAICA. YOUR NOT WELCOME IN PORUS.
Wow! The first joke is 13 years for murdering a woman just because she didn't want him anymore. The second joke is a reduced sentence for said crime. The third jojke is deporting him back to Jamaica where the joke might just be on him.
Seriously? 9 years for manslaughter? There’s no excuse for murder. If someone’s sentence is this short for claims of mental instability, he or she should not be allowed into the public again. This is the biggest problem with the court system here. Murder someone and you get a slap on the wrist. Pathetic.
don't say that. everybody make mistake, who are you to sit there and saying those stuff? dont u make mistake too? shes was leaving him for another guy, wouldnt you be upset for that. yes hes wrong for taking her life, but hey its life, everybody make mistake, and everyone should get another chance in life.
Mistake? Go tell the lady who lost her life and her family that it was just a 'mistake'. Fool!
The crown seem to be a pushover – can we not have people who appear fight for victims rather than siding with criminals?
So you get 10 years for a gun and only nine years for murder? I’m scratching my head….
Sentencing in Cayman is a joke. 10 years for a modified flare gun that could only fire and hurt the shooter. Yet 9 years for killing someone witha knife after stated premeditation (if I can’t have her no one will) 2 years for killing someone while driving drunk, a suspended sentence for the rape of a child under the age of 14. And getting off on appeal after committing murder due to police screw ups (the muderer of Brian Rankine) There is no justice here – for either the victim or the perpetrator. The Courts system and sentencing laws need a total overhaul.
In some unprecedented case, the killer got that 9 years reduced to >> 6 years <<.
Don't worry, I'm sure he got some cousin here that will have him back in no time; undr a different name of course!!
Deporting people is definitley a step in the right direction, however if we have no fingerprint records they can reappear here under a new name and passport. It is happening with persons who have been rolled over so please do not think for one second that criminals will not do the same. Every person who enters these shores should be fingerprinted. If they are fingerprinted when they are caught in any criminal activity then their fingerprints should already be in the sysytem unless they came here illegally then there is more to add to their rap sheet for deportation. If they try to reenter and their fingerprints are already in the sysytem as a deportee they can be sent back where they came from immediatley, otherwise this deportation is non-effective. One down, many more to go but get this system in place ASAP. Ooops, I forgot UDP spent all our money on Maca$$ and Ju Judas so there's no funds for things Cayman really really needs!
Good riddance six years at our expense was too much my sampathy to the family of his victim. This wasa callous crime and I trust that he will receive God justice in time which will be much longer than six years.
So let me cut through all the fluff in the article. This guy killed his girlfirend, served 6 years in prison and now is free to go?
What kind of justice is that?
His sentence was cut for MURDER???? Folks are we missing something here, whether or nothe will be deported to his country, he murdered somone in cold blood…13 years is a joke, reducing it is comical. I still can't get over that?????
Sad that he was provoked and couldn't see that he could have moved on, find another person to love him, and spared a life.