The Queen v Umberto Shenato
| Jurisdiction | Antigua and Barbuda |
| Judge | Ramdhani J. |
| Judgment Date | 28 November 2016 |
| Judgment citation (vLex) | [2016] ECSC J1128-3 |
| Date | 28 November 2016 |
| Court | High Court (Antigua) |
| Docket Number | CRIMINAL CASE NO. 41 of 2015 |
EASTERN CARIBBEAN SUPREME COURT
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
(CRIMINAL)
CRIMINAL CASE NO. 41 of 2015
Criminal Law — Sentence — Murder — Conviction on Trial — Court's approach on sentencing — Application of common law sentencing principles — Considerations of aggravating and mitigating features — Vicious Attack on deceased with a knife — Intention to Kill — Killing in a public place — Defendant 73 years old at the date of offence — Previous positive good character — circumstances of extreme emotional stress — Starting point a sentence of 30 years — Appropriate sentence of 20 years — Minimum term of 14 years — Review under section 3B of the Offences against the Persons Act, Cap 300
Ramdhani J.(Ag.) On the 20th September 2016, the defendant, Umberto Schenato was found guilty of the murder of his ex-wife Edda Schenato. The court ordered a pre-sentence report and a psychiatric report and the matter was adjourned to the 18th November 2016 for sentencing. In considering this matter in the round, taking into consideration both the offence and the offender, an appropriate term is a fixed term of imprisonment of 20 years with a minimum period of 14 years. The reasons for this sentence are now set out.
Minutes after 2 p.m. on the 3rd June 2013, police were called to the Epicurean Supermarket at Friar's Hill Road, St. John on a report that an elderly gentleman had viciously stabbed and killed an elderly Caucasian woman in the parking lot. When the police got the scene, they found elderly man standing on the western end of the parking lot with a knife to his throat warding off civilians and even another officer in plain clothes. He was quite agitated and was pacing near his rented vehicle which had been boxed in by truck driven there by the owner to prevent him from leaving.
The officers quickly disarmed that gentleman, this defendant, and took him into custody. He was taken to the St. John's police station where he gave a written statement and two days later voluntarily participated in the question and answer interview. He was later charged with the offence of murder of the deceased lady, his ex-wife.
The prosecution led some 23 witnesses at the trial, several of whom were eyewitnesses to the actual killing that day at the parking lot of the Epicurean Supermarket. They also led evidence of video footage taken from two video surveillance cameras at the supermarket; one of these caught the actual killing with considerable clarity and substantially confirmed the crucial eyewitness evidence.
Witnesses stated that at about 2 p.m. on the 3rd June 2013, they noticed what appeared to be an argument between an elderly 'white' man and an elderly 'white' lady between two parked cars in the parking lot. Suddenly, the man started to 'punch at' the lady with his right hand and she almost immediately fell the ground. Witnesses stated that he went on top of her and continued trying to hit her with his hand. Several witnesses stated they ran up to the fallen couple and tried to pull the man off the lady. He continued attacking her on the ground. Several more persons came up and tried to get him off her. At one point he turned around and lashed out with his right hand, and then those witnesses realized that he had a knife in the hand he was 'punching' with. One of these persons got cut. The crowd retreated and the man turned back to the lady and struck at her several times. A few persons returned to her aid and eventually they managed to get him to pull away from the lady. At that time she was lying motionless on the ground. She would die moments later on that asphalt surface of that parking lot.
As the man got up, the crowd backed away. He wiped the knife and he walked to the western end of the parking lot. A police officer in plain clothes who happened to be at the supermarket, realizing that the man had just attacked someone, attempted to stop him. This officer said that the man then placed his own knife to his throat and threatened to kill himself if anyone tried to stop him. With these threats holding everyone at bay, he managed to get into his car which had been parked at the western end of the parking lot. But he could not leave, as an unidentified man, reversed his truck and stopped it just behind the car boxing in the attacker's car. When he realized that he could not get away with the car, he came out the car, and again placed the knife to his throat, threatening to kill himself. There was a standoff for about 10 to 15 minutes until other police officers came to the scene. Together, they managed to distract the man and disarmed him. They arrested him and took him to the station. It was this defendant, Umberto Schenato that was so seen and arrested.
Much of these crucial matters were captured by the video footage. Whilst the features of the man and the lady could not be clearly seen, the defendant has never denied that he is the man in the footage and that it showed the 'confrontation' between himself and his ex-wife. He was clearly seen to be the aggressive one in the video.
The prosecution also led evidence that earlier that same day, the defendant was seen at one 'Tony's Watersports and Bar' where he spoke to 'Tony' within the hearing of an employee. Both these persons gave evidence to the effect that when the defendant was asked about 'his wife' he responded to the effect that he wished she was dead. Tony testified that he referred to his 'wife' as a 'bitch' and stated twice that he wished she were dead.
The prosecution also led evidence that the defendant and the deceased had been married and divorced, and were involved in a protracted property dispute which had been in the civil courts for over 8 years. That matter was scheduled to be heard on the 4th of June 2013, and the defendant who had been living in the Dominican Republic had just come into the country for that hearing.
When he was arrested the defendant agreed to give an explanation for what had happened. This statement was reduced into writing and he signed it. No objection was taken to its admission at the trial. He stated:
"Today I find her by accident I knew that she don't want to come to court tomorrow and is eight years am waiting for that. I then said to her come to Court tomorrow I repeated it three or four times, she then told me she is not coming in an angry manner she then started calling people. I then took my knife from my right pants pocket and stabbed her, she fell to the ground. Somebody then came on my back and I was trying to escape to go to Fort James at High Point to put myself down. After I wasn't successful the police came at the Epicurean Parking Lot and met me with the knife and they took the knife from me. I had the knife at my throat because I was hoping to go in the car at High Point at Fort James to kill myself. I was afraid to kill myself I just wanted to go to Fort James where it is nice and rocky and high enough. The police did a very good job of taking away my knife, while one was talking to me the other came from my side and took away my knife. Five police then came on top of me."
Two days after he was arrested he also participated in a question and answer interview which the police held to clear up a few things. There was also no objection to the admission of this interview record. In this interview he told the police that it had been an accident. He also said that she attacked him. One of the more significant answers he gave in this interview explaining what he meant when he said it was an accident was as follows:
"I mean by this, that I was approaching Edda asking her to come to court the day after for the foreseen trial and she answered evasively. That was followed by a further request and it was the same evasive answer. In this I was telling her the reason for my request that was the fact that for eight years her and her attorney was doing mockery of the justice, postponing and postponing indefinitely the trials. In this case the …Edda lawyers are coming up with hundreds of reasons just to postpone the trial. After that I showed her that if they do that again they have to face the knife I had in my hand and I showed her because it was eight long years that I was waiting for that. When I showed her she attacked me and it came out of that physical collision. The particulars of that I can't recollect them, like a mess. When I saw that there was some blood around, I was running away. The further things are not important."
He claimed that he carried the knife for his own protection as he had been attacked in the past.
At his trial, he gave an unsworn statement and maintained that he never intended to kill her and that all he intended to do was to threaten her to come to court. He said that she also told him she had a knife and that she was trying to get into her car and he was trying to stop her when they fell.
The jury would have rejected accident, self-defense and provocation in this case when they returned a verdict of guilty of murder.
It was revealed at the trial that the defendant and the deceased were going through a contentious property dispute following a bitter divorce several years ago. The defendant is an Italian who came to Antigua and Barbuda in 1988, on a contract to perform services on the electrical grid on the islands. He had met the deceased almost immediately and six years later they got married.
This marriage lasted for until 2005 and then the deceased filed for divorce.
Following this divorce, there arose a dispute related to how much money of his own the defendant had invested into the property owned by the deceased. He claimed that he had invested much of his life savings and all of his efforts to develop the property. The defendant initiated civil proceedings in the High Court and obtained...
To continue reading
Request your trial