Portmore woman gets four years in prison for manslaughter

A Portmore woman who fatally stabbed a man during a dispute over a clothes line was on Thursday sentenced to four years in prison.

Justice Bertram Morrison handed down sentencing in the St Catherine Circuit Court.

Twenty-seven-year-old Celine Edwards was charged with murder but she pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter.

The judge told Edwards that had a good community report, that she was young, and that she did not waste the court's time.

Facts before the court are that on July 23, 2018, Edwards and the deceased, 20-year-old Jordan Cilburn, who were tenants at the same house in Gregory Park, had a dispute.

Cilburn was in the process of washing clothes when a confrontation developed between them over the use of a clothes line.

The court was told that Edwards used a knife to stabbed Cilburn in the chest.

He was rushed to the Spanish Town Hospital, where he succumbed.

An investigation was launched by the Caymanas police, which resulted in Edwards being arrested and charged with murder. 

A murder trial started, however, she plead guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter.

Attorneys-at-Law Denieve Barnett and Lynden Wellesley represented Edwards.

- Rasbert Turner 

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