Young mother jailed and split from new baby
(CNS): A young West Bay mum convicted of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm was sentenced to 9 months imprisonment on Friday by Justice Michael Mettyear after she admitted stabbing a man with a three inch blade. Although the judge took Bianca Vega's age and full cooperation with the police into account among many other mitigating factors, he said he "would not be doing duty to the public" if he did not impose an immediate custodial sentence for the offense. Vega is just 21 years old and a single mother with a baby boy, from whom she will now be separated. Justice Mettyear found that Vega had acted in excessive self-defence, despite a degree of provocation, when she stabbed her victim some 18 months ago at a residence along North West Point Road, West Bay.
Lucy Organ of Samson & McGrath appeared as defence counsel and made submissions regarding Vega’s age and her very young son, for whom she is the primary caregiver.
Counsel told the judge that the damage inflicted on her young son would be great and so her client would be willing to pay compensation for the victim — Norman McLaughlin's $9,000 hospital bill — in monthly installments of $300. Vega offered a $500 down-payment to avoid the prison term she was warned to expect following her conviction. However, the judge said he could not accept the payment in exchange for a prison term because of the seriousness of the offense.
The judge said Vega did not have any previous violent convictions and has made tremendous changes in her life following the incident and performed well on her probation order while on bail. Nevertheless, the judge sent the young mother to jail.
During his closing statement, Justice Mettyear said he had considered handing down a suspended sentence but did not feel it would be due justice. Instead he ordered down a substantially lower sentence than those normally imposed for such an offense.
See related story:
West-Bay-woman-faces-jail-time-over-stabbing
Woman-claims-self-defence-stabbing-case
Category: Crime
Reading your comments is hilarious yet depressing. Like you have nothing better to do than pass judgement. I know noone on this website is perfect. Place yourself in her shoes and im sure you would not be on your high horse right now. But ofcourse the majority of caymanians will give this a dislike, because yall just in a permanent state of judgement. Don't worry, your time will come soon
Not knowing the circumstances of the wounding it is hard to pass judgment and even hard to judge her on being a mother. I am sure that it will be very hard for her to be separated from her child, but it is good that the baby is still small enough not to be effected to badly from the separation. This should be a learning lesson and I hope society forgives her and is willing to give her a chance once she serves her time and pays her debt to society
CNS Note: Links to earlier court reports relating to the case have now been posted
First of all, this could be a domestic violence matter, the judge himself said it was self defense. How can anyone think that this may not have been an ongoing situation or how can we know how many times this man interfered with this lady or why she felt so threatened as to run a blade through him?
This is outrageous! I have known cases that babies and children have been put into foster care by the social services department and get raped or otherwise molested! Suppose this baby goes through that in the nine months his mother is locked up for protecting herself! APPEAL this case Vega! At suspended sentence is fitting, the woman has no other violent convictions and the courts have acknowledged that she acted in self defense and was aggravated! We have robbers and murderers roaming our streets on suspended sentences and a young mother, sole provider of a young baby must be imprisoned for defended herself! Holy Father Cayman gets stupider and more pathetic everyday!!!
The bigger question…who is taking care of the child?
What is going to happen to the baby? That is who I am concerned for…
Yet a 40ish year old man breaks down a door and drags out a 14 year old girl from under her bed, where she is hiding from him and then rapes her…and he gets a suspended sentence because it wouldn't be fair to his wife and two children to send him to jail.
And we are supposed to put our faith in the RCIP and the Courts. I think not.
Best remark ever on Cayman News Service!!!!
A decent period of separation for a child from someone like this is probably until the kid is 18 or 21.
You do the crime you do the time! Getting knocked up won’t save you from prison teedee!
Gt
So what did the guy do to make her stab him ?
lucky kid….
the sad thing is we will all end up paying for her and her kid for a very long time…..
the caymanian parenting cyclye is truly frightening…..
Please give me a break. In other countries they sell their children in the sex trade and leave them on t he side of the road and you have the audacity to degrade her/Caymanian way of parenting. Obviously you are out of touch with what happens in the wider world. What she did had nothing to do with parenting, she is probably a good mother just defending herself for a change instead of taking the abuse. I do not condone violence but please remember it swings both ways. I trust some good person is raising her child while she is in prison. God Bless you mother and child.
Is this not a totally foreign girl born to crack parents overseas with a Honduranian but not Cayman connection and adopted by well meaning religious parents here? She has been a major problem since she was 10 and now she is one of us………thanks to religion.
..call the 'baby father'…he needs to have some responsibility…these young men are just getting these young girls pregnant then heading to the grapetree to play dominoes and cards and smoke some ganja. If he doesnt step up to plate now…put his a** in jail too.
She should have robbed the guy…would have got a lesser sentance.
If you can't do the time, don't do the time. The baby should be taken away from her, she's clearly not a fit mom.
This isn't "justice being served". There's no level of compassion or empathy in this case. As for the comment of the baby being taken from her, that's a rather harsh and almost stupid thing to say.
"If you can't do the time, don't do the time."
What?
if you cant do the time, dont do the crime….anyway well said
Defending yourself does not mean you are not a fit mother! I have three children whom I raised all by myself and believe me, I kept them under my wings and ensured they were protected at all cost but if ever I was in a situation where I had to defend myself i sure will – does that make me an unfit mother? go fly a kite!