A Jealous man who chopped off the head of his former common-law wife was found guilty of manslaughter and will be sentenced on February 12.

A Home Circuit Court jury retired for three hours and found 34-year-old Steve Hall, farmer and cook, of Cambridge Hill, near Llandewey, St Thomas, guilty of the offence.

Supreme Court judge Carol Beswick had left the offences of murder and manslaughter for the jury's consideration. The jury found him guilty of the lesser offence because provocation arose in the Crown's case.

The Crown, represented by Winsome Pennicooke, assistant deputy director of public prosecutions, led evidence that February 22, 2006, Hall and 26-year-old Letitia Graham had a dispute and he took a machete and chopped off her head.

Evidence was given that the couple, who had two children, had ended the relationship about a year before the deceased, who was also called 'Angie', was chopped to death.

Visit her children

A witness testified that he took the deceased in his motorcar to Cambridge to visit her children who were living with Hall. When they went there, the deceased asked for the children and the accused ran out of the house with a machete. Hall accused the deceased of having a "Water Commission man". The witness said he tried to persuade Hall to put down the machete because he was heading in the deceased's direction with the machete.

Cross-examination

Hall lowered the machete and then took up stones. He threw stones at the deceased and she in turn threw stones. The witness said when the deceased ran out of stones, Hall ran to where she was and chopped her on the neck, severing the head.

Hall said, in his defence, that he acted in self-defence. He said the deceased hit him with a stone and he fell. He said she came over him and was about to hit him again and he saw a machete and chopped at her.