A 22-year-old man from Pe­nal will spend the next nine years in prison af­ter ad­mit­ting to stab­bing a neigh­bour to death in an al­ter­ca­tion in 2023.

Leon Sher­win Bap­tiste was await­ing tri­al for mur­der­ing Car­lyle “Blacks” Hamil­ton when he was al­lowed to plead guilty to the less­er of­fence of manslaugh­ter by provo­ca­tion, with the ap­proval of the Of­fice of the Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions (DPP), ear­li­er this month.

In de­cid­ing on the ap­pro­pri­ate sen­tence for Bap­tiste dur­ing a hear­ing Thurs­day, High Court Judge Lisa Ram­sumair-Hinds be­gan with a start­ing point of 18 years, which was par­tial­ly based on the lack of pre­med­i­ta­tion and pro­vok­ing con­duct of his vic­tim.