49 year-old Vincent "Steeno" Tillett, the man who stabbed his common-law wife's lover to death, will spend a total of 12 years in prison for it. That was the sentence that Justice Adolph Lucas handed him today after his mitigation hearing.
Justice Lucas heard character witnesses from Tillett's daughter Naera Polanco; his friends, business man Alvin Hyde Jr. and Pastor Melvin Davis of the Church of Christ; and from his attorney, Arthur Saldivar. After careful consideration, Justice Lucas sentenced Tillett to 15 years in prison to be recorded as commencing from the day when he was remanded to prison to await trial. He will only serve 12, since he spent 3 years in jail, waiting to have his case heard.
Tillett was tried without a jury before Justice Lucas who, after listening to the evidence presented to him, found him guilty of a lesser charge of manslaughter, not murder, when he stabbed 22 year-old Darwin Phillip, puncturing is heart, killing him.
As we told you, Tillett's common-law wife, Denise Stuart, was called to the stand to testify against him, but she refused to cooperate, and had to be treated as a hostile witness. Her statement, which she gave to police explaining how Tillett committed the crime, was admitted into evidence.
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