BELIZE CITY, Thurs. Mar. 12, 2020– Tishawn Hamilton, 27, a former firefighter who was charged with the murder of his cousin, Eaton Lamb, 17, but had pleaded guilty to manslaughter, was sentenced to 15 years in prison today by Justice Marilyn Williams.

However, because Hamilton had pleaded guilty and had saved the court time, he was entitled to a deduction of a third of his sentence, which resulted in a reduced prison sentence of 10 years. A further reduction of his sentence was made because Justice Williams stipulated that the balance of time Hamilton would serve should take effect from February 21, 2017, when he was remanded.

Therefore, Hamilton will serve approximately 7 more years in prison.

Before she decided on the sentence, Justice Williams took into consideration the aggravating factors and the mitigating factors. The mitigating factors were that four witnesses, among them Hamilton’s father, Reginald Hamilton, had testified on his behalf.

Also, Hamilton testified on his own behalf and he expressed remorse for the pain and sorrow he caused to the family of his cousin.

The aggravating factors were that the deceased was unarmed when he was fatally stabbed and four impact statements were submitted.

In addition to that, Hamilton pursued Lamb after he had stabbed him, and he did not throw away the knife when the police fired a warning shot.

The incident occurred at about 11:00 p.m. on February 19, 2017. Lamb suffered a single stab wound in the chest during an altercation with Hamilton over some money that Lamb owed Hamilton.

Hamilton was represented by attorney Leeroy Banner, while the Crown was represented by Senior Crown Counsel Sheneiza Smith.

Feature photo: Tishawn Hamilton