Senior Reporter
sascha.wilson@guardian.co.tt
Senseless and brutal was how a High Court judge described the death of a 30-year-old man who was chopped 11 times on his head by his roommate during an altercation over a gyro in 2015. Beginning the sentence at 20 years, Justice Lisa Ramsumair-Hinds yesterday ordered Nigel Mungroo to serve three years and ten months in prison after making the required deductions.
Mungroo, 30, was charged with murdering Lovell Scott, but the State accepted a plea to the lesser charge of manslaughter. Scott and Mungroo lived in the same apartment at Chase Village. During an interview with the complainant, PC Latchman, the following day, Mungroo confessed to chopping Scot with a cutlass on his head in their apartment on December 23, 2015. According to the interview notes that were read in court, Mungroo claimed Scott started to speak in an abusive manner.
“He ask for a piece of my gyro, and I said no. Then he ask me if I want he to take it and slap me in my face, and I did not answer and exactly what he say is what he do. He start to slap me.”
Mungroo said he turned to walk out of the room to clean where the gyro splashed on the wall and fell on the ground, and Scott closed and locked the door. Mungroo said he sat outside of the room, then he knocked on the door and told Scott in a “calm manner” to open the door because he wanted to bathe. He admitted, “From dey, I went outside the apartment, I did get the blade and come back inside , ah chop him at the room, I leave the blade right dey.” The impact statements from Scot’s mother and sister were also read in the court. They said he was responsible and hardworking and supported them in many ways, including financially. Scott’s mother said they were still hurting, and no longer celebrate Christmas. She said has not forgiven Mungroo.
Strongly condemning the alarming frequency of unlawful killings in the country, the judge said, “Far too often are there reports of violence whether impassioned by any excuse in the form of provocation or compromised capacities of restraint, many resulting in the cold finality of someone’s death.”
Apart from the prevalence and seriousness of the offence, the judge said another aggravating factor included the sheer brutality of the killing by the use of gratuitous violence. The post-mortem revealed that seven of the 11 chop wounds went through the skull. Ramsumair-Hinds noted that Mungroo had one previous conviction for escaping legal custody.
Among the mitigating factors, the judge considered the prison programmes Mungroo participated in and his genuine remorse. After considering the various factors, the judge made a downward adjustment of two years, then deducted the one-third discount for his guilty plea and the time he spent in custody awaiting trial.
