Frustrated by the long time it took for a death by dangerous driving matter to reach the High Court, Justice Carlisle Greaves ordered the two St John men who struck and killed a cyclist almost 13 years ago to pay his family $10 000 in compensation rather than a fine to the court.
Earlier this month, Kemal Wendell Dione Quimby of Glebe Land, and Tristan Theo Alleyne of Society Hill, were arraigned in the No. 3 Supreme Court and pleaded guilty to causing the death of Adrian Hoyte of Mount Friendship, St Michael by driving their motor vehicles on Glebe Land Road, St George at a speed and in a manner dangerous to the public, on September 4, 2011.
Both the State and defence submitted that a $5 000 fine be paid by each of the men.
However, Justice Greaves voiced his disapproval of funds being placed in the State’s coffers, because of the delay.
“The thing is that the $10 000 the two of them will now pay goes to the State. For what?! The State doesn’t deserve a dime in this case. This should be going to the victims and I really have a problem putting this money in the Treasury with people being unfaired like this – both the victims and the accused,” he stressed, later adding “I cannot in my conscience give one dime to the State in this circumstance.”
Pointing to the Needham’s Point Declaration on Criminal Justice Reform adopted by several regional countries in 2023, the judge highlighted the portion which states that “as a rule, trials should be held within one year of the accused being charged for indictable offences and six months for summary offences. During the necessary transitional stage to this ideal, trials should be held within two to three years of the accused being charged for indictable offences and twelve months for summary offences.”
Justice Greaves said: “This case is 13 years old and breaches every one of those ideals. It is the kind of case that is ripe for dismissal for breach of the defence’s constitutional rights of a fair trial within a reasonable time. There is nothing reasonable about a case coming to trial 13 years after the event in a matter such as this. This is a simple case that should be disposed of within months, if not weeks, of the event.
“Cases like these have serious repercussions on people…. They have had this hanging over their heads all of this time. What can be fair about that? And if the case is dismissed because of this unreasonable delay, in a case of offences where the two of them were arguably frolicking with danger on a dark road in the countryside in the middle of the night, chasing one another, resulting in the death of an innocent man, how is that going to be justice to (the deceased) and his family?” he argued.
The High Court judge ordered Alleyne and Quimby to pay compensation of $5 000 forthwith to the court. He said these funds would be held and paid to Hoyte’s estate. The matter will be reviewed on September 27.
Giving a brief outline of the facts, Principal State Counsel Neville Watson said that police went on duty to Valley Land Road in St George around 4:15 a.m. and saw two motor cars, which appeared to have been involved in a collision, on the left-hand side of the road facing Glebe Land. Both vehicles had damages. Police also saw Hoyte’s body in a pool of blood.
In his interview with the police, Alleyne said he was driving his vehicle along the road and Quimby was driving behind him. As he reached the top of the incline, another vehicle was coming from the opposite direction and that was when he saw Hoyte in the lights. Alleyne said the man was about 20 feet away when he first saw him, was dressed in black and had no reflectors on his bicycle.
“I pull dead left. My left tyre and rim hit the sidewalk. He was in the middle of the road like he did want to get cross the other side. My bumper touch the back tire of he bicycle,” he said.
Alleyne told the police he got out of the car, saw the man lying in the road breathing heavily, ran to the police station and reported the matter.
He admitted that he was driving around 80 to 90 kilometres per hour. The prosecutor said Valley Land Road has a speed limit of 60 kilometres per hour.
Asked to give an account of the incident, Quimby told the officers he had nothing to say.
The scene reconstructivist concluded that Quimby had been driving at an excessive speed, and the forensics examiner found Hoyte’s blood on Quimby’s vehicle. According to the post-mortem report, Hoyte died as a result of blunt head trauma.
“This is a case where (Alleyne’s car) struck the pedal cyclist first, having struck the wheel and (Quimby’s car) collided with him second,” Watson explained.
The prosecutor said the circumstances pointed to the two either racing or driving competitively. He also highlighted their lack of regard for other road users, and driving at inappropriate speeds on a dark road with poor visibility.
Watson identified the dark clothing of the deceased, the lack of reflective lights and the duo remaining at the scene as mitigating factors.
The prosecutor said the duo’s young age at the time of the incident – Alleyne was 22 and Quimby was 19 – should be considered in their favour, and he submitted that they each pay a $5 000 forthwith fine.
Senior Counsel Arthur Holder who represented Alleyne, and attorney Vincent Watson, Quimby’s attorney, both highlighted the substantial delay in the case, with the former saying that in matters such as these, the 12 years and eight months it took to get to court should be considered time spent.
The post Judge laments decade delay, orders compensation to accident victim’s family appeared first on Barbados Today.
