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Trott-Edwards pleads guilty to manslaughter

Kiahna Trott-Edwards (File photograph by Akil Simmons)

A mother of three is back behind bars today after pleading guilty to the manslaughter of a teenage boy.

Kiahna Trott-Edwards was initially jailed for life in December 2015 after a jury found her guilty of murdering Shijuan Mungal when she lashed at him with a baseball bat.

However, last August the Court of Appeal pointed to “regrettable errors” during her trial before quashing her conviction and sentence and releasing her on bail pending a retrial.

Yesterday morning, on the day she was due to stand trial again, Trott-Edwards admitted the manslaughter of Shijuan and was remanded in custody until May 19 when she will be sentenced.

When the murder charge was put to her in court she said: “Not guilty to murder, but guilty to manslaughter.”

Director of Public Prosecutions Larry Mussenden told the court the pleas were acceptable to the Crown and asked that Trott-Edwards, who was represented by Charles Richardson, be remanded in custody.

Shijuan’s mother, Chandra Mungal, was in court yesterday to see Trott-Edwards plead guilty to manslaughter.

“I really don’t know how I feel about this,” she told The Royal Gazette. “It has been such a long, drawn-out process; so much time has passed since I lost my son.

“I’m a little relieved that I will not have to sit through another trial, but this whole process has been extremely frustrating and hard to understand.

“I have really mixed feelings about what has happened; I really don’t know what to say. I just want to feel some sense of closure, and at the moment the whole process just keeps on going.”

During her original trial, jurors were told that Trott-Edwards murdered 16-year-old Shijuan by striking him around the head with a baseball bat during a confrontation outside her Warwick home on September 8, 2014.

The confrontation had followed an altercation between Trott-Edwards and the teenager on a bus.

Shijuan died in hospital three days after being struck twice with a baseball bat: once on the arm and once on the back of the head, which fractured his skull.

It is The Royal Gazette’s policy not to allow comments on stories regarding criminal court cases. As we are legally liable for any libellous or defamatory comments made on our website, this move is for our protection as well as that of our readers.