Casan­dra Thomp­son�Forbes

A To­ba­go man was sen­tenced yes­ter­day to 18 months in jail for mo­tor ve­hi­cle manslaugh­ter.

High Court judge David Har­ris, pre­sid­ing in the To­ba­go Supreme Court, hand­ed down the sen­tence.

Ja­iron Phillips, 27, was charged with death by dan­ger­ous dri­ving, fol­low­ing an ac­ci­dent which claimed the life of his friend, Jwe­bari Leslie, 18, on Oc­to­ber 6, 2009.

The ac­ci­dent took place on the Claude Noel High­way, near the Bagatelle turn off.

The court heard Phillips was dri­ving his green Nis­san B-13 when he over­took a line of cars and col­lid­ed with a sil­ver Nis­san Wingroad, dri­ven by Hugh Hamil­ton, of Louis D'Or. Hamil­ton was al­so in­jured.

Leslie, who was the front seat pas­sen­ger of Phillips' ve­hi­cle, was air­lift­ed to Trinidad for treat­ment but lat­er died. Oth­ers in­jured in the ac­ci­dent were Fi­ta Vic­tor, Heather Gray and Ger­ard George who were pas­sen­gers in the Wingroad.

Har­ris, in pass­ing sen­tence, said sev­er­al fac­tors were tak­en in­to con­sid­er­a­tion dur­ing the sen­tenc­ing.

He said no amount of mon­ey, com­pen­sa­tion or time Phillips served in prison could bring Leslie back to his fam­i­ly. He said the act could not go un­no­ticed or un­pun­ished.

Sev­er­al char­ac­ter wit­ness­es, in­clud­ing one from Brigid Lon­don, the wife of Chief Sec­re­tary Orville Lon­don, were sub­mit­ted on Phillips' be­half.

He was rep­re­sent­ed by at­tor­ney Rekha Ramjit.