Edward “Pleck” Buller, 50, of Central American Boulevard, was today sentenced to 16 years in prison by Justice Adolph Lucas in the Supreme Court.
Buller was acquitted of murder but convicted of the alternative charge of manslaughter by a jury of six men and six women on September 19, 2011 in the death of Ella Mae Pinnace Bennett, 42, also known as “Gial Gial.”
The two were acquaintances and were last seen together on the concrete verandah of the abandoned house where Bennett was found on June 22, 2009, nude from the waist down and exhibiting cut wounds to her forehead and an irregular fracture on the right side of the head.
It came out at trial that Buller told a friend of his where Bennett could be found, and when the man returned and told him what he observed, Buller replied that “he didn’t care.”
A caution statement to police – which Buller denied giving voluntarily – features him admitting to having an argument and struggle with Bennett at the house on the evening of June 20, which ended when he forcibly pushed her down and she hit her head and lay motionless thereafter.
In his own defense, Buller claimed that he was at home at the time of the incident.
At sentencing today, Buller and his attorney, Philip Palacio, pleaded for leniency, pointing to a previously clean criminal record and the over two years he has already been in custody. Buller also apologized to Bennett’s family.
The maximum sentence for manslaughter is life imprisonment, but in practice set by the Court of Appeal and followed by the lower court, a range of 12 to 25 years in prison is used.
Justice Lucas told the prisoner that a stint of “rehabilitation” would be best for him to reintegrate into society and encouraged him not to give trouble and stick to the programs provided at the prison.
The sentence is with effect from September 6, 2011, the start of the trial.