THE court has this week sentenced a man to three years imprisonment for the death of another person in 2013 at Tenaru, East Guadalcanal.
Samson Totoha was however, released from custody given that he had already served that amount of time while in pre-trial custody.
Chief Justice Sir Albert Palmer convicted Totoha of the charge of manslaughter following his guilty plea.
When handing down his sentence, Sir Albert said this is another of those tragic cases where the abuse of alcohol consumption had resulted in the death of someone, in totally unnecessary and wasteful circumstances, where a gathering of friends and relatives had ended up in an argument, a fight and a death.
“The adverse effect and impact of excessive consumption of alcohol needs to be brought home to those who drink so that preventative measures can be taken to try and control this type of behaviour with its tragic consequences,” Sir Albert said.
“Any death in such circumstances is one too many.”
Sir Albert told Totoha he hopes he will learn from this and avoid alcohol herewith for his own good and those around him.
Totoha and his brother William were both initially charged with one count of murder and have gone through a trial.
At the end of the prosecution case, lawyers representing the brothers submitted a no case to answer.
The court having looked through those submissions found the brothers not guilty of the murder charge and therefore acquitted them of the charges.
Sir Albert however, found them both have a case to the charge of manslaughter.
Totoha wasted no time and entered a guilty plea to the manslaughter charge while his brother William denied the charge.
William during the defence case remained silent and did not call witnesses.
Closing submissions were then made on his case.
Sir Albert found William not guilty of the manslaughter but found him guilty of a common assault charge.
He then acquitted William of the manslaughter charge and sentenced him to six months imprisonment of the assault charge.
William was also released after the sentence since he had already served three years in custody.
By ASSUMPTA BUCHANAN
