The Queen v Nicholas Patrick Tibbetts
| Jurisdiction | Cayman Islands |
| Judge | Dame Linda Dobbs |
| Judgment Date | 16 December 2016 |
| Court | Grand Court (Cayman Islands) |
| Docket Number | INDICTMENT NO: 0071/2015 |
| Date | 16 December 2016 |
Dame Linda Dobbs
INDICTMENT NO: 0071/2015
IN THE GRAND COURT OF THE CAYMAN ISLANDS
CRIMINAL SIDE
Criminal Law — Death by Careless Driving — Sentence — Starting point — Aggravating and Mitigating Factors — Court's discretion to consider a reduction for time on an electronically monitored curfew.
Mr. Greg Walcolm for the Crown
Ms. Amelia Fosuhene of BRADYfor the Defendant
1. Mr Tibbetts pleaded guilty to one offence of causing death by careless driving on 23rd April 2015 contrary to s.79 of the Traffic Law 2011 Revision. A count of doing an act intending and intended to obstruct justice was not proceeded with.
2. On Thursday 23rd April 2015 around 4.30 a.m., the lifeless body of Mr Donnie Ray Connor was discovered, by a cyclist, on the side of the eastbound side of Linford Pearson highway, at the junction with Birchwood drive. The cyclist contacted the police and police and ambulance were dispatched to the scene. The victim was taken to hospital. Debris at the scene, including the damaged bicycle of the deceased, were collected. The scene had all the signs of a hit-and-run accident.
3. An investigation ensued.
4. During the course of the investigation police watched CCTV footage which showed a grey coloured car resembling a Honda Torneo entering from Agnes Way and exiting Linford Pearson highway shortly after the victim entered that highway from Bobby Thompson Way. It was noted that when the Honda Torneo entered the highway it did not have any damage to it, but some two minutes later, by the Kings Gym roundabout, damage to the nearside of the car, including the headlight, was noted. The officers then obtained a list of all grey and silver Honda Torneos.
5. The officers made checks at each address of owners of such cars. On Sunday 26th April, they went to an address listed for registration of vehicle 138–445 at 53 Kipling Street. The officers noticed a car in front of the house and two elderly ladies outside on the front porch. On walking past the car the officers noticed the smell of fresh paint fumes and also that the colour on the left fender and hood was different from the rest of the car.
6. The officers asked to see the registered owner, Mr Tibbetts. He came out. He was asked if he had done any work on his car recently as the officers could smell paint fumes. Mr Tibbetts replied,
“Yes, I crash Wednesday night at Country and Western round about the same time that guy was hit”
7. He was asked what guy. He said he had heard it on the news.
8. He was arrested and cautioned and taken to the police station. The car was seized.
9. The defendant's IPhone was seized and messages downloaded which revealed conversations about Mr Tibbetts having an accident and whether it was connected to the man who had been killed.
10. Further investigations by the police revealed that after the accident the defendant went to the Red Bay On the Run petrol station where he changed the nearside rear wheel which had been damaged from the accident. CCTV from the petrol station shows the car entering and pulling up to an air pump and then leaving. The damage to the left head light and left fender and windscreen was visible.
11. The defendant went home but later that morning contacted a friend, Frank Watler Jr. As a result of the conversation, the defendant contacted Lance Eden to make arrangements to have his car fixed. The defendant, having rung around for parts, contacted Danny who sold him the parts for CI$825. Work began on the car immediately on the same day.
12. The defendant asked a friend Carlos Robinson to help him dispose of the damaged parts at the dump. They took the windshield and fender but left the hood behind as they could not fit it into the defendant's car. This was sometime after 10 p.m. on 23rd April.
13. The post mortem on the victim took place on 28th April. The cause of death was blunt impact trauma to the head, chest and abdomen consistent with being hit by a motor vehicle.
14. Swabs taken from the defendant's car proved a match for the deceased.
15. Collin Redden, an accident reconstruction expert, examined the scene of the collision and the defendant's car. He concluded that the bicycle ridden by the victim had no lights or reflectors but that the highway lighting was reasonable. Mr Connor (the victim) was heading eastbound towards the Kings Gym roundabout. The defendant's car was also heading eastbound. It hit the rear of Mr Connor's bicycle; this threw Mr Connor backwards onto the left side of the car's bonnet and into the front windscreen and left-side pillar area of the car. After the initial impact, the bicycle was partly run over, and dragged causing the front rim and tyre to separate from the front fork.
The defendant's car continued to travel along the hard shoulder heading towards the guard rail, leaving behind the front rim and tyre from the bicycle, silver paint chip pieces of headlight lens and the left front fender liner. The rider would still have been carried by the car — with the rest of the bicycle being dragged under the left side rocket panel area.
The Honda continued to travel towards the open lot before veering to the right, back onto the highway. As it did so, the left rear car tyre ran over the bicycle damaging the outside sidewall, causing the tyre to deflate and causing the bicycle to finally rest by the side of the guardrail. The rider, at the same time, was also projected off the nearside of the car — which ripped the nearside rear rain guard from the window frame. This was found just west of the final resting place of the bicycle. The deceased landed on the edge of the hard shoulder just near the bicycle handlebar. Upon examination, the damage to the car tyre showed that the tyre was damaged from the outside and not the inside — the latter being consistent with a blowout. The damage also indicated that the car was driven some distance with the flat tyre, causing the lip of the rim to cut into the sidewall.
16. The defendant was interviewed on 27th April 2015. A prepared statement was presented by the defendant's attorney but as the defendant was not feeling well, the interview was cut short.
17. The interview resumed on Thursday 30th April. The attorney read out the prepared statement. The defendant said that he had taken some Benadryl for his allergies which can sometimes make him drowsy. He went out and had some rum and lots of water. He believed that he was fit to drive and did not feel tired when he started his journey home. He remembered taking the turn to Linford Pearson Highway but he did not recall hitting anyone or being in an accident. He only remembered the sound of a horn and bright lights from a vehicle behind him. He did not know if he had hit anyone. He must have fallen asleep as he started to have trouble controlling his car in the vicinity of the Country and Western Bar, when he realised that he had blown his tyre. He went to the Red Bay petrol station where he noticed that there was significant damage to his car and he was confused about how it could have happened. He changed the tyre and, when he got home, parked his car in his front garden facing the street with the damage visible. He still did not know at that time whether he had hit the man. He found out about a man being hit on a website the next day — but he wasn't worried because he didn't think that he had hit anyone. He then heard that a silver car was involved and he wondered if it were him. He spoke to people about going to the police He knew the right thing was to go to the police and he was intending to do so on the Monday but was arrested before he had the chance to do so.
18. He was asked why he had rushed to mend his car and he replied that it was his only means of transportation. He was not trying to conceal the damage. When asked why he had taken the damaged parts to the dump at night himself—he replied — they are mine, I can do what I want with them. Asked why he had not reported the matter to the police once he had known someone was dead — he replied that he was going to go on Monday but he was arrested on Sunday.
19. There is a Social Inquiry Report (SIR) dated 7th November 2016. So far as the defendant's background is concerned, despite a somewhat unsettled childhood, he did well at school, and on leaving school, found employment. He has been gainfully employed since 2007 and, until the incident, was employed as an Immigration Officer in the Immigration Department. He met and married his present wife in October 2015. There are no children. He is a church goer and attends regularly. He is also heavily involved in community sports activities in recent times. He has not taken alcohol since he became baptised a year ago. He has no previous convictions.
20. He is assessed at a very low risk of re-offending.
21. There are also numerous testimonials in support of the defendant. The authors all speak very highly of the defendant and how shocked they were to hear of the incident because it was so out of character. All the positive things that can be said about a person have been said about this defendant. His wife speaks of the defendant as a loving, caring and trustworthy person. She describes the deep regret and sadness the defendant has about the accident; she describes the hardship she would face were the defendant to be given a custodial sentence.
22. Another letter of note is one from Mr Moore, the nephew of the victim Mr Connor. He tells of the victim's closeness to his mother. He also spoke of his knowledge of the Tibbetts family. He makes a plea to the court, as someone who personally knows the damage prison in the Cayman Islands can do, for the court to pass a non-custodial sentence.
23. The defence submit that the SIR and the letters of support...
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