Lewis sentencing postponed again

The sentencing of convicted murderer Rodman Moses Lewis has been postponed, again

Judge Wynante Adrien-Roberts was scheduled to sentence Lewis, 32, of Goodwill on Tuesday, May 4 at the Roseau High Court for the murder of his child's mother, Triscia Riviere, 26, of Stock Farm on Cherry Lane at Stock Farm on Tuesday, November 3, 2015.

But the much-anticipated sentencing was adjourned to Friday, May 7 at 9:30 am because the state represented by acting Director of Prosecutions Sherma Dalrymple expects to extensively cross-examine the psychiatric doctor and social welfare officer.

The matter of the sentencing of Lewis was earlier set for Monday, February 1, 2021, after a jury of five men and four women found him guilty on Thursday, November 13, 2020, after a 28-day trial that had begun on Monday, October 5, 2020, before trial judge Justice Wynante Adrien-Roberts. The sentencing of Lewis did not take place as scheduled.

It transpired that a psychiatrist report ordered by the court had not been forthcoming when the court again convened on Tuesday, March 16 it was disclosed that doctors of the Acute Psychiatric Unit (APU) of the Dominica China Friendship Hospital had not complied with the court order. Two consultant doctors were summoned to court, and the new date of Tuesday, May 4, 2021, was scheduled.

State Attorney Sherma Dalrymple of the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions prosecuted the case for the state while Attorney Anthony Commodore conducted the defense.

The state called 22 witnesses to prove its case.

The state's case is that Rodman Lewis kicked Triscia Riviere in her kitchen at Stock Farm on the evening of Tuesday, November 3, 2015, repeatedly stomped her head while she lay prostrate on the floor of the kitchen, and struck her on the head with a 20-lb gas cylinder. The jury took less than an hour to arrive at their verdict of guilty of murder.

Speaking to the press after the verdict, the prosecution said it would request the death penalty.

"We believe that the circumstances of this murder are extremely brutal and it fits into the category of the worse of the worse," said persecutor Dalrymple. "This penalty is still available in Dominica, it is still on the law books and the accuse we think is not likely to be reformed".

Meanwhile, Sherman Webb pleaded guilty on Tuesday to manslaughter in the death of Corey Rohan Poleon of Barbados. Dalrymple replaced the previous murder indictment with a new indictment of manslaughter.

The murder trial of Webb of Kings Hill was among the three matters listed for May 4, 2021.

Earlier, a jury of five women and four men found Webb guilty of the murder of Poleon at River Claire in the heights of Elmshall on Thursday, March 18, 2010.

The state prosecution led by the late Director of Public Prosecutions Gene Pestaina and former State Attorney Arthlyn Nesty called 13 witnesses including four police officers to make the state's case before Justice Birnie Stephenson at the Roseau High Court in July 2012. Peter Alleyne was Defence Counsel.

The Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court of Appeal ordered a retrial on appeal.