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He Killed Christie, Appeal Court Says He Was Provoked, Reduces Sentence
Thu, March 23, 2017
6 days ago, we told you about convicted killer Osmar Sabido who went to the Court of Appeal to get his conviction for murder reduced to manslaughter. Well, the Court of Appeal said yes to that today - sending shockwaves across Orange Walk town. The panel of judges found that Justice Herbert Lord did not factor in that Sabido was provoked into viciously stabbing his common-law wife, 21 year-old Christie Carrasco to death.

As we told you, Justice Lord found him guilty of murder in a trial without jury last year April. But his attorneys, Leeroy Banner and Oscar Selgado, went to the Appeal Court to argue that Sabido wasn't in his right mind when he killed his common-law wife. You'll remember that Sabido testified in the trial last year that the fight started when Carrasco told him that she thinks that she is pregnant for another man.

The judges of the Court of Appeal, after considering the arguments of the DPP's Office as well, agreed that he is guilty of committing a crime, but that it wasn't murder. It's a controversial outcome of high profile case out of Orange Walk, and this evening, we discussed it with one of his attorneys after the court handed down its ruling:

Oscar Selgado, Attorney for Osmar Sabido
"Justice Lord sitting alone as judge of fact and of law, sitting alone as judge without a jury, found that there was enough evidence upon which the crown had succeeded to prove the elements of murder and convicted Osmar Sabido for the crime of murder and sentence him to life imprisonment."

"We appealed, Mr. Leroy Banner and myself appealed on several grounds and one of the grounds was that the learned trial judge did not take into consideration the evidence which showed that Osmar Sabido was provoked and the defence of provocation was substantive. In the evidence that came before the trial judge, Osmar Sabido swore on oath that in fact Christie Carrasco, the deceased, was the person who first attacked him with a knife after she had disclosed to him that she had another man - she was in another relationship. The court of appeal dwelled on provocation a lot and in its ruling held that in fact the judge erred in not considering provocation to the full extent. Thereby allowing a partial defence to Osmar Sabido. It's a partial defence which reduces the charge of murder to manslaughter and the court has so held that the evidence displayed that in fact Osmar Sabido was provoked."

Daniel Ortiz, 7News
"How do you reconcile what the court is viewing as law and appropriate when compared to the emotional impact of the violent act?"

Oscar Selgado, Attorney for Osmar Sabido
"The court will balance sending a strong public condemnation to this type of behavior, along with what is reasonable to rehabilitate the offender."

Reporter
"You argument sir, forgive me for asking: is similar that one that was presented to the courts about 2 weeks or less with regards to another instance where an individual stabbed and killed his common law wife multiple times and then use the argument of provocation to have a lesser sentence. Is this what we are seeing now as a potential trend in terms of litigation of these matters?"

Oscar Selgado, Attorney for Osmar Sabido
"Each case is decided on upon its own merits."

This is the second appeal of a trial without a jury outcome that the Court of Appeal has allowed this week.

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