Sylvester “Sly” Darroux, 59, of La Plaine has been sentenced to fours in prison for causing grievous bodily harm to a 15-year-old La Plaine boy during a carnival celebration last year.
Darroux however will spend one year in prison since three of the four-year sentence has been suspended.
He was ordered to pay compensation of $5,000 to the complainant Ranghi Laronde to be paid within a period of 12 months after being released from prison. If he fails to do so, he will be imprisoned for another 12 months.
The convicted man pleaded guilty to the charge before Justice Birnie Stephenson-Brooks last week.
According to the facts of the case presented by the police prosecutor, on Carnival Tuesday, February 24,2009, the complainant was in a carnival band called the Black Devils. At about 4 p.m. on the said date, the complainant was attacked by the accused.
“Whilst dancing, he felt someone holding his jacket. When he turned around he saw the accused. He then felt a sharp slash on his face. When he tried to get away, he felt stabs in his back, neck and upper shoulder. The complainant fell in a drain. There, he was rescued by his father; unknowing to his father it was his son. He only realized it was his son when he removed the mask on his son’s face,” the prosecutor said.
According to Hendricks Paul, the doctor who attended to the victim, Laronde sustained a 5 mm sharp edge oblique wound from the left side of his nose to the upper lip.
The second wound was 2 cm long to the left scapular and the third was 6 cm over his shoulder. The facial wound was explored and stitched in layers.
Paul said that such wounds could have been caused by significant force. Laronde spent three days at the hospital and was discharged.
According to the prosecutor, the accused presented himself to the La Plaine police the following day where he gave his version of the incident. He told police that before the incident with Laronde, a masked man came in the band. After a while he received a blow to his head which sent him dizzy.
“I go and get an old knife…When I reach I see about 200 men in black… he (the complainant) had a stick . I grabbed him… we started to wrestle. I cut him… I never know he was a little boy because he had so much clothes on him,” the prosecutor said.
In mitigation, Darroux’s lawyer Peter Allyene said that his client was especially remorseful taking into the account the age of the victim. He stated that his client was drunk when it happened .
Alleyne told the court that according to his client, a number of the young men in the band were misbehaving before the incident including breaking bottles on the road.
Before passing sentence Justice Stephenson-Brooks cautioned the convicted man.
“Even if the 200 black men were breaking bottles and carrying on and behaving ba you had no right … to get a knife… Two wrongs don’t ever, ever, make a right. The mature responsible thing to do was drop the drum and go home or take the lick in your head and keep drumming boom, boom, boom,” Justice Stephenson-Brooks said.
“You could have killed him on that day… I am very distressed with this offense this morning,” the judge added.
That man has a habbit of stabbing people and getting away with it .It was about time he pay for his actions I strongly think he should have gotten what the guy from delices got when he came to disturb carnival in La plaine.(thats for those who can remember).
thats is exactly what i mean by that man that make the rum he have an account to answer with god any way you admit to doing it so hey you have to pay i hope you think a little bit more positive about lije whiles u in there and do not make that mistake again we all still care about you and have love for u always
We all fall short sometimes and got to pay for our actions..Hope this gonna make you a better person…Hold strong bro sly..