A 36-year-old woman, Stella Gilbert, collapsed in an Ikeja High Court in Lagos after she was sentenced to death for stabbing her neighbour and mother of three, Mrs Stella Godwin to death during a fight at their residence in Ajegunle.
In its judgment, the Court presided over by Justice Raliatu Adebiyi dismissed the claim of self defence.
“The defendant used a knife on the deceased; by any standard, a knife is a lethal weapon. The evidence of the Prosecution Witnesses proved that the deceased was stabbed on the chest. The chest is where the heart is; the defendant, by stabbing the deceased on the chest, a very fragile part of the body, clearly intended to cause the most harm to her; the death of the deceased occurred as a result of grievous injury caused by the defendant. The Court held.
“The defendant, Stella Gilbert, is hereby sentenced to death. May God that grants life have mercy on your soul.” Justice Adebiyi pronounced.
On hearing the pronouncement, Stella Gilbert collapsed on the dock. Wailing loudly, saying “please Ma, temper justice with mercy, why me oh, only me…”
She was immediately taken away into a prison van out to avoid disruption of proceedings in other courtrooms.
