Today in Supreme Court, 28-year-old Tyshaun Brown was sentenced for stabbing his father Amon Brown to death on July 8, 2020.
Mr. Brown pleaded guilty to manslaughter on March 17 of this year and the charge was reduced from murder due to his mental state and diminished responsibility for the killing as a result.
“ In sentencing the accused, I must have dual regard and give proper weight to the numerous relevant factors to be balanced together,” Puisne Judge Shade Subair Williams said. “ In summary, [psychiatrist] Dr. Sebastian Henagaulph found that the accused did not suffer from a severe and enduring mental health condition such as Schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or severe depression and further concluded that his mental health condition is not one that requires mental treatment. Instead, his condition at the time of the killing was more akin to prolonged grief disorder (PGD) and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), which is directly related to witnessing his sister’s death when he was ten years old and the long-lasting grief that followed.”
“ The accused’s decision to consume the alcohol which enabled his emotional state [at the time of the killing] was clearly a culpable and voluntary act,” Justice Williams continued. “ This makes his alcohol consumption a real aggregating factor, particularly because of his criminal history and his link with alcohol intoxication . . . his willingness to intoxicate himself in such close company with his father was more-so his dangerous way of permitting his unrestrained emotional state to be unleashed from an abnormal state of mind.”
From Justice Williams’ observations, the defendant’s father Amon Brown was not presented as a bad, short-tempered or abusive father, but rather as a loving and generous father, son, friend and family man.
“ The deceased, a 52-year-old family man, was beaten to the point of being knocked to the ground and stabbed mercilessly by the accused who relentlessly pursued his father as he sought to escape, shirtless and desperately knocking on a neighboring door for rescue,” she said. “ Having already butchered his poor father who held his hand to his stomach wound, the accused persisted with the attack with the ferocity of an enraged wild dog.”
Taking everything into consideration, Justice Williams feels that Mr. Brown still presents a great risk to those around him and society, including some of his other family members. Because of this, she sentenced Mr. Brown to a life sentence in prison, with no less than twelve years before he becomes eligible for parole.
Mr. Brown was escorted out of the courtroom and back to Westgate Correctional Facility immediately following his sentencing.
Ms. Valerie Betty Raynor mother and grandmother of both the deceased and defendant spoke to the media, said that the killing of her oldest son still hurts her and her family to the core.
“ Hearing my grandson’s lawyer Elizabeth Christopher say that the trauma he experienced due to the death of his sister 16 years ago boggles me,”
Ms. Raynor said. “ It’s not until he inflicted 26 stab wounds that took his father’s life that they are now claiming ‘diminished responsibility.’ I now feel that the court system has failed my grandson . . . he has put up with his grief for 16 years; how is it that no one saw fit to get this boy some help?”
Because the defendant is Ms. Raynor’s grandson, she has decided to forgive him for killing her son.
Some of the people Ms. Raynor would like to thank are Pastor Leroy Bean, the Mothers of Murder Victims group, and the Department of Public Prosecutions and its director, Cindy Clarke.
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