DPP’s Office accepted Jolyan Silvera’s manslaughter plea due to lack of evidence

The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions says it accepted the plea to the lesser offence of manslaughter in the Jolyan Silvera murder trial, as it did not have evidence of what happened when his wife Melissa Silvera was killed.

In a statement this morning, the DPP’s office explains that having heard Mr. Silvera’s account of what took place when he shot his wife, the prosecution took the decision after assessing the evidence and subject to the court’s approval.

The prosecution cites two other reasons for its decision.

It says having heard Mr. Silvera’s account, the prosecution would not have been able to evidentially negative the partial defence of provocation raised by him and that it’s cognizant of the fact that in light of the account given by Mr. Silvera, having raised the partial defence of provocation, the court would have a duty to direct the jury on the defence of provocation and the effect it would have on the count of murder; that is to reduce it to manslaughter.

The case was scheduled to begin on Monday February 2, when Mr. Silvera pleaded not guilty to using a firearm to commit a felony in relation to murder and not guilty to murder.

Instead he pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

The DPP says on Monday night the defence provided a statement authored and signed by Mr. Silvera to the prosecution.

The statement in summary was that on the night of the 10th day of November 2023, Mr. Silvera and his wife had an argument which got physical.

He indicated that during the argument she blamed him as she always did, for the death of their young son.

He went on to state that during the argument she hurled several expletives at him and made derogatory statements about his sister and mother which he found to be provocative.

According to the statement, he said further, that during the argument she made a comment about their children which he found to be the final straw and at that point he lost control and discharged his weapon in her direction.

He stated that it was not his intention to hurt or kill her that night and that having done so he panicked and left the apartment.

Mr. Silvera in a statement noted that over the course of the days following her death, he thought about his children losing both parents and made the decision to not admit to what he had done.

This was outlined to the court on Tuesday, February 3.

Mr. Silvera is to be sentenced on March 6.