By: R. Joyclyn Wea
MONROVIA-Criminal Court “A” at the Temple of Justice has sentenced Christian Byron Anderson to life time imprisonment for murdering his Uncle John H. Tubman, son of former Liberian President Williams V.S. Tubman.
Early this year, Christian and two of his friends were arrested in connection with the killing of John Tubman and sent to court for prosecution, where they were later indicted by the Grand Jury of Montserrado County for murder.
At the call of trial, the government dropped criminal charges against two of the three defendants who later testified against their friend Byron Anderson, a major doer of the act and nephew of the deceased.
During the trial, defendant Anderson admitted to killing his uncle but said he did the same on purpose because he was allegedly sodomized by the deceased who refused to give him money to get himself treatment.
Counsel for the prosecution during the sentencing hearing on July 4, 2022, says though the probation report shows no prior criminal record of the defendant; the crime of murder, is a hideous crime to be ever committed by a man against his fellow as in the instant case.
Though the deceased offended the defendant by allegedly sodomizing him (defendant), the prosecution says, the same does not give Anderson ground to take the deceased’s life, especially days or weeks after the occurrence of the alleged sodomy for which the defendant planned to get even with the deceased.
On this bases, the prosecution pray Judge Roosevelt Willie to grant unto the defendant the highest punishment under the law of Liberia after the murder had been committed; that is, either death by handing or life imprisonment so as to serve as a deterrence to another that no matter how badly or how grievously someone may have offended or abuse you.
The prosecution holds that his recourse of the situation is to law and not to take the law into his own hands by committing the act of murder.
Judge Willie agreed with the state by awarding a death sentence to the defendant who is believed to be in his early 30s.
Meanwhile, the defendant’s counsel has taken exception to this verdict of Judge Willie and announced an appeal before the Supreme Court of Liberia.
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