Court opts against life sentence for man who murdered Cuban-born wife

KINGSTOWN (CMC):

A High Court judge Monday sentenced a St Vincent and the Grenadines national to 38 years in prison after he was found guilty of the murder of his Cuban-born wife, Arianna Taylor-Israel, outside a school building in the presence of their son on January 30, 2020.

Justice Rickie Burnett in handing down his ruling rejected an application by prosecutor Richie Maitland that the convicted murderer, Mitchel Israel, be sentenced to life imprisonment.

The judge, however, noted the seriousness of Israel’s crime and said that the court must send a message of deterrence and rehabilitation.

Israel wore a facemask and used a leather portfolio to further hide his face from the media as he was escorted back to prison to complete his sentence.

He remained silent when asked by reporters how he felt about the sentence and the impact that the court said his crime had had on his two sons.

In his sentencing remarks, Justice Rickie Burnett quoted the social report as saying that the couple’s son lost both of their parents on the day of the killing and this had had a lasting impact on them.

In determining the starting sentence, Justice Burnett noted that the defence lawyers, the father and daughter duo of Linton and Maffika Lewis, had argued that while the murder was committed in the presence of children and near an educational institution, this should be given lesser weight because Israel had gone to the school to pick up his children, as he usually did.

The defence argued that it was by chance that the killing had occurred in the presence of children.

Israel was convicted on August 16, 2023 of murdering his wife, a nurse, on the compound of St Martin’s Secondary School (SMSS), in Wilson Hill, Kingstown.

A pathologist concluded that she died of multiple gunshot injuries.

The judge said that through its verdict, the jury had rejected the defences of self-defence, accident and provocation. He said a social inquiry report showed that Israel had made three reports to police against her husband in 2018 and 2020.

The couple was married for over 20 years before the murder and the relationship had produced two sons.

Justice Burnett said that even after his conviction, Israel maintained that the killing was an accident.