An unemployed man has been sentenced to five years in prison for manslaughter by an Accra High Court.
Godwin Kotey was convicted of stabbing his cousin in the chest with a screwdriver after a heated argument over a woman on November 23, 2020, near Salaga Market in Accra. Kotey pleaded guilty to the manslaughter charge, leading to his conviction and sentencing by Justice Mrs. Lydia Osei Marfa.
“I have considered the circumstances of this case and Ialso believe that the proposal of a sentence of five years is reasonable. The accused is hereby sentenced to five years with hard labour.
The court noted that his rights under Article 42(6) were taken into consideration, and referred to Section 239(2) of Act 30.
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Initially, Kotey was charged with murder for intentionally causing the death of Sackey Nii Okaijah Frederick. However, his lawyer entered into plea bargaining negotiations with the Attorney General, changing his plea from not guilty of murder to guilty of manslaughter. The defence counsel cited Section 239(2) of Act 30 in support of their request.
The court was informed that a proposal was submitted to the Director of Public Prosecution and the Attorney General, who agreed to a five-year sentence, which was accepted by the prosecution.
The court then retook Kotey’s plea on the manslaughter charge.
According to Senior State Attorney Vivian Osei Tutu, Kotey, a married man residing near Salaga Market in Accra, asked his cousin, the deceased, to accommodate his girlfriend/fiancée, Victoria Sabbah, due to marital complications. Kotey became suspicious of an affair between the deceased and Sabbah, leading to confrontations.
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Despite Sabbah’s plea for accommodation in November 2020, Kotey accused the deceased of continuing the affair.
The prosecution said a pathologist at Korie-Bu Teaching Hospital gave the cause of death as “perforated right ventricle from the stab injury to the chest”.
This culminated in a heated argument at Salaga Market, during which Kotey stabbed the deceased with a screwdriver before fleeing. He was apprehended by bystanders and confessed to the crime in his police statement.
