‘A woman is not the property of a man,’ judge says in 2020 Avocat Village killing

SHOT DEAD: A photo of Gabriella Amanda Dubarry who was shot dead in 2020 by the father of her child, Vishal Birju. FILE PHOTO - File Photo

A High Court judge has sent a strong message against domestic violence while sentencing a Fyzabad man for the killing of the mother of his son, saying society must understand that a woman is not the property of a man.

Justice Trevor Jones made the comments as he sentenced Vishal Birju for the 2020 killing of Gabriella Amanda Dubarry at her home in Avocat Village, after accepting a plea agreement that reduced the charge from murder to manslaughter by reason of provocation.

Birju, who was charged with murdering Dubarry at her Jebodhsingh Street home on January 9, 2020, pleaded guilty to manslaughter by reason of provocation, possession of a firearm and possession of ammunition. The plea agreement was entered with the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and accepted by the court.

In sentencing, Justice Jones began with a 28-year term, applied a one-year downward adjustment, then reduced the sentence by one-third to reflect Birju’s guilty plea. After also deducting the time he had already spent in custody, the judge left Birju with 12 years and 23 days remaining to serve.

“There must be a message sent to society that a woman is not the property of a man,” Justice Jones said. “The retributive sentence must reflect this.” He added that the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions should reconsider accepting plea agreements in cases involving infidelity and domestic violence.

Before the sentence was passed, Birju apologised to Dubarry’s family, expressing remorse for the impact of the killing on their young son.

“I turned my son’s fairytale life into a nightmare when I took his mother from him,” Birju said. “The person I’ve caused the most pain to was him. I am so sorry for the hurt that I have caused to my son and the deceased’s family.”

According to the evidence, Dubarry, 28, an insurance agent with Guardian Life, was at home preparing for work when a masked intruder dressed in black entered the house. Her mother told investigators she recognised the intruder’s voice as Birju, her daughter’s former partner and the father of Dubarry’s child.

Dubarry’s mother fled the house, screaming for help and heard gunshots moments later. When she returned, she found her daughter lying on the floor with gunshot wounds. Dubarry was pronounced dead at the scene, while her infant child, who was in the room at the time, was unharmed.

Police later recovered spent .38-calibre casings and a projectile at the scene. A post-mortem examination determined that Dubarry died from gunshot wounds to the head and torso.

Investigators said Birju disguised himself in women’s Islamic clothing to gain access to the property and later confessed to the shooting, telling police he acted under stress linked to his inability to see his son and ongoing conflict with Dubarry and her family. He also led officers to the area where he discarded the firearm, which was later recovered.

In statements to the police, Birju claimed, “Is the stress to not seeing meh son, the provocation and then nobody eh listening to me.”

“The whole thing that push this thing to officer is because the girl just bad mind and she just doh wah me see my way. Then the fact that she father and whole family picking up for she,” he told PC Shiva Sewdath of the Homicide Bureau’s Region Three.

“It so happen that Gabriella mother open the door first and she see meh and when she see meh she started to scream…Gabriella run up the stairs. I follow she up the stairs and it had a child in the room to and ah try to empty, two shells fall out. After the shell fall out, ah stick in two more and bus shots again.”

Birju said he ran out of the house and discarded the hijab before tossing the gun, which he told investigators he bought from a man weeks earlier at Market Road, Fyzabad.

In his oral confession, Birju told investigators, “I real sorry about what I do but was real stress but it reach ah point where Gabriella was putting meh in ah state in this life where I was unable to move forward mentally and with other circumstances physically and the pressure was too much because having a child to hug up every night and give yuh all and to have somebody call yuh dad and just to take that away and to even have thoughts that he might not be mines and to not have access to ah DNA test by my own right because I wasn’t going through no court and ting.

“It hard to not see meh son on ah daily because of Gabriella and the choices of the family I reach to ah point where I cyah take it no more and that is what make me do wah ah do. Officer diaz it dey, I good dey now.”

Michelle Ali and Shuzvon Ramdass of the Public Defenders’ Department represented Birju, while Solange Devenish and Josiah Soo Hon appeared for the state.