The Tribune

By LAMECH JOHNSON

Tribune Staff Reporter

ljohnson@tribunemedia.net

MIKIKO Black has retained a new lawyer to appeal her conviction for manslaughter in connection with the killing of her husband, a Royal Bahamas Defence Force officer.

The 26-year-old convict and her lawyer Romona Farquharson-Seymour appeared in the Court of Appeal yesterday confirming the latter’s appointment as counsel that will argue her appeal against conviction concerning the death of Leonardo Black.

Her substantive hearing is now set for June 3 to allow Mrs Farquharson-Seymour sufficient time to prepare for the appeal.

The widow had denied the murder charge she initially faced and maintained that her actions on the night of April 19, 2010 were in self-defence.

On that night at the couple’s apartment on the corner of Boil Fish Drive and Adderley Terrace, off Faith Avenue, police found the body of the 27-year-old marine with gunshot wounds in the left side of his face.

The accused was arraigned four days later and her trial began on July 1, 2013.

Black testified that before April 19, 2010, she and her husband had been evicted from three apartments because of domestic disputes and fights between them.

Black said that on the day in question, she and her husband got into an argument that turned physical.

While in the living room, both Blacks reached for a weapon and she claimed she only recalled a shot going off and then her husband falling to the floor, the court was told.

On July 23, 2013 a jury found Black not guilty of murder, but guilty of manslaughter.

Six months later, in January 2014, Justice Vera Watkins ruled that she would not get the probation that her then-lawyer Moses Bain had asked for.

Instead, a custodial sentence of 14 years imprisonment was considered appropriate in the circumstances of the case in view of the fact that she had expressed no remorse or sympathy.

“The conviction of manslaughter by reason of provocation indicates that Black had lost her self-control at the time. She has not accepted any responsibility for the part she played in the incident,” the judge had said at the time.