A man who brutally bludgeoned his brother with a hammer as he lay sleeping has been sentenced to 22 years in prison, with a High Court judge warning that he poses a threat not just to family but to society.
After time served and other deductions, Ricardo Elwin Sealy, 36, of Cambridge, St Joseph, must serve ten more years at Dodds Prison for unlawfully killing his sibling, Ryan Sealy, on April 13, 2021.
Madam Justice Laurie-Ann Smith-Bovell, in sentencing him in the No. 4 Supreme Court on Wednesday, declared: “The court is of the view that you are a threat not only to your family members, but also to members of society, and therefore a long period of incarceration is necessary to protect members of the society and for you to be treated as suggested by the psychologist.”
The judge said it was clear from the evidence that Sealy had “stewed” over a prior altercation with his brother and waited until he was asleep before launching the premeditated attack.
“You waited until your brother was asleep and defenceless and attacked him brutally with a hammer for a situation which had occurred weeks prior,” Justice Smith-Bovell noted. “The fact that you would harm your brother in such a brutal manner when, having been raised with him from a child, you would have had a relationship with him, this leads the court to wonder how you are likely to react to strangers should you again find yourself in a situation where you feel someone has wronged you.”
Sealy had previously pleaded not guilty to murdering his brother, but guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter.
In his interview with police, he said the attack was in retaliation for an earlier incident in which his brother struck him in the head and on the hip with a piece of iron. He admitted to lawmen that on the day of the attack, he armed himself with a hammer and two knives “so nobody can harm me with them.”
He confessed to striking his brother later that night with the hammer “six or seven times” to his upper and lower body, and said there was blood coming from his brother’s head when he stopped hitting him.
Ryan was transported to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital by ambulance and succumbed to his injuries two weeks later.
Justice Smith-Bovell identified several aggravating factors, including that Sealy was pre-armed with an offensive weapon, that it was premeditated and done in revenge—as the convicted man was heard to say ‘I ain’t forget you’ when he exited his brother’s bedroom with the hammer in his hand—, the attack was unprovoked as the deceased had been asleep in his bed in a defenceless state and of no threat to the convicted man, the act of brutal force, and the pain inflicted on the deceased by being hit about the head and body.
No mitigating factors were found, and a starting sentence of 22 years was given. No adjustments were made after the judge determined that the convict’s high risk of reoffending and propensity for violence cancelled out his lack of previous convictions and expression of remorse.
His early guilty plea, positive prison report and 1 306 days on remand left Sealy with a decade of imprisonment.
Justice Smith-Bovell ordered him to participate in all psychotherapeutic programmes available at the prison to provide him with skills to resolve interpersonal conflicts, to participate in developmental or vocational skill programmes to assist in his rehabilitation, and to enrol in drug treatment and anger management programmes.
The case was prosecuted by Acting Director of Public Prosecutions Alliston Seale SC. Sealy was represented by defence attorneys Derek Boyce and Dave Cumberbatch.
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