In December of 2006, Daniel Ku, 31 was sentenced to life imprisonment after he was convicted of stabbing his common-law wife, Anna Marie Basto, a 32-year-old nurse in Orange Walk.
After police had arrested Ku, very soon after it was discovered that Basto was murdered, he gave a police statement., admiting that he had committed the grizzly attack, in which Basto was stabbed thirty-one times, and her throat was slashed three times. This very same statement was admitted into evidence in the Supreme Court case.
On last week, Wednesday, in a Court of Appeal’s session, Ku’s Attorney, Simeon Sampson, submitted to the court that Ku was now willing to accept a lesser charge of manslaughter, instead of murder.
The basis for Sampson’s submission was that the same statement that was used to gain the conviction was not looked at carefully. Sampson pointed out that in the written statement, Ku also admitted that he had left his house after he and Basto had a misunderstanding, and that he had had intentions of going to consume alcohol.
Sampson also explained that, coupled with evidence in the statement of extreme provocation, Ku was entitled to a defense of loss of self-control, which the trial judge did not direct the jury on.
Yesterday, Director of Public Prosecutions, Cheryl Lynn Vidal, submitted to the Court of Appeal that Ku should be granted a retrial, instead of the court accepting the lesser charge.
The Court of Appeal has since ordered a new trial, and Ku’s life sentence has been set aside for the outcome of the new case.