A Home Circuit Court jury deliberated for three hours yesterday and convicted 25-year-old Prince Vale of manslaughter, arising from the fatal stabbing of Anglican priest, Father Richard Johnson, on November 12, 2006.

Vale was charged with murder but the jury found him guilty of manslaughter, the lesser offence.

Supreme Court judge, Norma McIntosh, will sentence him on February 4 as his lawyer, Melrose Reid, has applied for a social enquiry report.

"Oh God, I can't believe it," Vale cried when he heard the verdict.

He also begged to be given a chance to return to society.

No eyewitness

The Crown, represented by attorney-at-law Anthony Pearson and prosecutors Dirk Harrison and Kamar Henry, led evidence at the trial, which began last week Wednesday, that the priest was stabbed several times at the Anglican Church Rectory, Stony Hill, St Andrew, on the night of November 12, 2006.

There was no eyewitness to the murder but the Crown relied on the questions and answers from an interview which the police had with Vale.

Vale admitted in the interview that he had been to the rectory several times. He said that on the night of the incident the priest gave him a pair of trousers. He tried it on but it could not fit and he gave it back to the priest. He said the priest pushed him on to the bed and was fighting him to be intimate with him, and he stabbed him.

Second account

In his unsworn statement in court, Vale said that, after the priest pushed him on to the bed, the priest came over him and was trying to be intimate with him. He said he used his ratchet knife to slash the priest on his foot and the priest began squeezing his throat. He said it was while the priest was squeezing his throat that he stabbed him.

McIntosh told the jurors during her summation that the prosecution was saying that Vale intentionally killed the priest and was asking them to find him guilty of murder.

The judge said that if the jurors believed that Vale was acting in self-defence or had reasonable doubt about that, then the verdict was not guilty of murder.

She added that if they found that Vale was provoked or believed what he told them about getting "mad" and having a sudden lack of self-control, then they could return a verdict of guilty of manslaughter by reason of provocation.

barbara.gayle@gleanerjm.com