12 years RI for Royal Park accused

Found guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder:

Siranjani Kumari

COLOMBO: Colombo High Court Judge I.M. Abeyratne yesterday sentenced Anthony Shamantha Jayamaha, the accused in the Royal Park murder case, to 12 years' rigorous imprisonment in addition to a fine of Rs. 300,000 and in default, a further imprisonment of three years.

Shamantha Jayamaha was found guilty of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, an offence punishable under section 297 of the Penal Code.

In this case, Jayamaha stood indicted by the Attorney General that on or about the first day of July 2005 he caused the death of Yvonne Johnnson within the Housing Complex of Royal Park, Rajagiriya and thereby committed an offence punishable under section 296 of the Penal Code.

In the course of his Judgement the Judge observed that this was a case that portrayed an entirely different life pattern not common to this country and that the conviction and sentence followed a judicial process that took six months and 12 days including a protracted trial in which 48 witnesses for the prosecution and four witnesses for the defence gave evidence.

The High Court Judge commenced delivering his judgment which ran to 170 pages at 10.00 a.m.

The Attorney General, using his special powers under the Criminal Procedure Code, filed indictment against the accused, directly in the High Court without going through the non-summary procedure in the Magistrate's Court.

In the Judgement, the Judge stated that according to the evidence led, on July 1, 2005 around 2.50 a.m. the accused entered Royal Park Housing Complex and had left around 3.25 a.m.and that the prosecution has proved that the accused did commit this crime within that period.

The accused in Court stated that the deceased Yvonne Johnnson was in sexual intimacy with him over a period and that he had no reason to end her life and that after he saw her blood stained body he lost his memory power.

On this point, the Registrar of Fingerprints confirmed that the palm imprints on the body of the deceased tallied with those of the accused and that the medical evidence led in the case did not confirm that the accused was subject to any disease resulting in the loss of memory.

According to medical evidence, there were 45 injuries on the body of the deceased including damage to the brain and as a result the supply of blood to the heart had stopped. According to the report of the Judicial Medical Officer, the death has been caused by strangulation.

Accordingly, the judge concluded that the accused who came out of the room of Caroline, the sister, quarrelled with Yvonne and committed this offence but he did not intend to kill Yvonne.

"In view of the palm prints and according to the evidence elicited, the accused did not have the intention to murder the deceased but he had the knowledge that his act was likely to cause her death.

Under the circumstances, I find the accused guilty of the offence of culpable homicide not amounting to murder under section 297 of the Penal Code," concluded the High Court Judge delivering his Judgement.

After the Judgement was delivered, President's Counsel Daya Perera on behalf of the accused pleaded in mitigation of sentence and submitted that at the time of the offence the accused was only 18 years of age and was reading for his higher studies and that he was under remand custody for one year and that the accused had not previous convictions.

Solicitor General Jayantha Jayasuriya in reply to Defence Counsel's submissions stated that the well-being of the society has to be taken into consideration when punishing offenders and urged Court to take in to consideration the severe injuries found in the body of the deceased and the fact that the accused has undressed the deceased and used her attire to strangle her.

Solicitor General Jayantha Jayasuriya with Senior State Counsel Haripriya Jayasundera and State Counsel Lakmali Karunaratne appeared for the Prosecution while President's Counsel Daya Perera and Mohan Peiris with Attorneys-at-Law Shanaka Ranasinghe, Anura Premaratne and Sampath Mendis appeared for the Defence.

President's Counsel Hemantha Warnakulasuriya looked after the interests of the deceased party.