A March 22 sentencing hearing has been set for a mentally challenged man who confessed to fatally chopping another during an attack at a shop in Haughton, St Elizabeth three years ago.
Shannon Chen, who was originally charged with the 2021 murder of 40-year-old blockmaker Andrew Boswell, pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter when he appeared in the St Elizabeth Circuit Court on Thursday.
Presiding Judge, Chief Justice Bryan Sykes, said based on his assessments of reports from doctors who examined Chen, the convict was in a poor mental state at the time he committed the act.
An antecedent report and a social enquiry report have been ordered ahead of sentencing later this month, and Chen was remanded in custody.
Reports are that about January 31, 2021, Chen, armed with a machete, pounced upon two men, including Boswell, at two shops in Haughton.
Boswell was chopped on the head, and succumbed to his injuries at hospital a day later.
The other man, who sustained chop wounds to his neck, was treated and released from hospital.
Following a probe, Chen was apprehended and subsequently charged with murder.
He was also charged with wounding with intent relative to the incident in which the other man was chopped and injured.
However, Chen pleaded guilty in the parish court to the lesser offence of unlawful wounding. The subsequent sentence that he was given for that offence was not revealed during his Circuit Court appearance on Thursday.
