Crown accepts killer was provoked in fight
(CNS): Mason Courtney Bryan (28) was provoked and had been involved in a violent encounter with his victim when he stabbed and killed Recardo Lionel Pars (27) outside the nightclub complex at The Strand plaza in August last year, prosecutors told the court Thursday. The crown has accepted that Bryan, who has admitted manslaughter, was in a fight with both Pars and his brother, Dante. Bryan had sustained injuries before he pulled out a knife during the violence and lashed out at Pars, stabbing him in the leg and fatally in the chest at around 3:00am on 29 August 2020. Pars was rushed to the hospital by a friend but was pronounced dead on arrival.
Bryan, who appeared in court Thursday for his first hearing in relation to the sentence, was arrested the following day at his George Town home on Watlers Road and his injuries were noted by the police.
Piecing together the evidence recorded on a cell phone and given by several witnesses, the crown has accepted Bryan’s claims that he was getting beaten up by Pars and his brother. He was on the floor being kicked and punched when he saw the knife on the floor, picked it up and then stabbed at his assailant.
Scott Wainwright, the prosecutor in the case, told the judge that it was clear there had been a certain amount of violence against Bryan by the deceased and his brother. He said the plea to manslaughter had been accepted on the basis that Bryan was provoked, as it appears the fight was started by the Pars brothers and he was trying to defend himself.
But Bryan had then lost control as he fought against Pars, who was unarmed, as he stabbed him in the chest.
In setting out the prosecution’s position regarding the elements of the case, Wainwright noted the aggravating factors in the crime, which included the use of the knife, compounded by the fact that the stabbing took place in the early hours of the morning outside a liquor licensed premises and a public place.
The prosecutor also noted that it was a fast moving fight, which was one of a least two separate and violent incidents that occurred in the same parking lot that night.
He also noted the impact on Pars family, in which the deceased was the eldest of six children and had become a father figure to his siblings after they lost their father just a year before Pars was also killed. A victim impact statement from Pars’ mother revealed how devastated the whole family was about his loss.
The court also heard that Bryan has previous convictions, including one for robbery and possession of an imitation gun in connection with a hold-up at Chisholm’s supermarket in North Side in 2014, for which he received four years in jail.
Following the crown’s outlining of the case, the hearing was adjourned until Monday, when Bryan’s defence team will argue in mitigation on his behalf in relation to the time he will serve.
- Fascinated
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Geez he looks like a good boy in the pic….pointing finger like a gun and facial tattoos are a sign of great social worth……didn’t he chase the guy down after stabbing him once?
Never one to uphold criminality but domestic violence is a fact of life in any society – not necessarily armed robbery. In a certain context many could argue that Bryan’s crime of intentionally robbing Chisholm’s grocery while armed (he travelled from GT to NS to do so) is much more serious than spontaneously killing one of two men who were viciously beating him.
My point is, why was he only given 4 years for the robbery? If the Courts were that lenient then, I wonder what they will do now that he has some kind of justification?
Bryan should have still been in Northward for the robbery and he wouldn’t have been on the street to get attacked and kill someone!
What now, oh hallowed Jam-run Court system?
9:15 am, U r part of the problem, didn’t he chased the guy and stab him.
Riding the court system
Yeah, OK legal BS. Pars was a real family figure, a “big brother” role model, out at 3am engaging in fights outside of bars. Such an amazing fatherly figure. NOT!
The more that people keep substantiating this type of behavior, the more it will keep passing through generations. It is not acceptable.
He’s got more tattoos than brain cells.
What a thoroughly depressing case. Two idiots attack another idiot. Idiot gets stabbed. Idiot loses his brother. Idiot goes to jail.
I’d love to know how it built up to this. I can guarantee it’ll be some petty squabble BS.
Why do we have to see someone die before we can see photos of people previously convicted of serious crime like armed robbery, assault, burglary etc etc etc
Where are Joe public’s rights when it comes to knowing what these people look. Is there a legal reason why all these convicted scumbags photos are not published or available to the general public?
Those convictions are public record and often reported in the media. Just search through the CNS archives and you can find them.
Nonsense!!
Look at the photo of Derrin Kennedy, wearing sunglasses and a baseball hat. Would Joe Public be able to recognize that miscreant ?What I’m talking about is Police mugshots of these scumbags. Why should Police not release these to the public, how else are we suppose to know who these monsters are amongst us !!!
A difficult one to take a stance on. I believe a lot of people are using their previous knowledge of the defendants prior convictions and it is tainting the objectivity. I believe these things should factor in to some degree, but I believe the precedence being set time and time again in Cayman is not in the favour of the average citizen when it comes to self defense.
If it is so that Bryan was being attacked by two men who continued to attack while he was on the ground, what should he have done in that situation? Should he have accepted the beating and wait until it was over? Who is to say his attackers wouldn’t have beat him until he was dead, after all it only takes one well placed (or misplaced) hit to kill someone. As someone who went to school in Miami and saw fights in the streets at spring break, I’ve seen it only takes 1 punch or kick to potentially kill someone.
We already have a previous case where a local musician’s property was being robbed and he defended his property with a machete, only to be charged by the courts. Now we have someone who was being beaten by two people claiming he defended himself, being charged with manslaughter. Regardless of your thoughts on the individual, replace Bryan with a member of your family, an upstanding citizen at the same location.. would you still feel the same way? I don’t know more details of the video, but if he got the knife, the attackers backed up and he charged at them, then I can understand the manslaughter case, but if we went for the knife and they continued to attack him.. then I personally feel that is a justified. So many potential situations and I don’t know the details but I’m just stating my thoughts and working through it in my head.
If it were you who were being beaten by two people, while you were on the ground, what would you do? Would you fear for your life? If the thought that you can be killed and no way of knowing what the outcome was, would you attempt to defend yourself with a weapon? Now this is just my opinion, but I’m seeing that the courts keep setting the tone that any form of defense you take, you are in the wrong if you out arm your attacker. What does this mean when the regular Joe or Jane defends themselves, will they have to go to Northward because someone else’s pride or desire to steal property was more important than their life?
Just thinking out loud.
Yeah, I’m getting beaten so I will kill the dude.
Another caymanian embarrassment.
Throw away the key! Next.
Deport him! Oh wait…….Homegrown talent.
Uk talent far worse be honest.
And the knife talents and shanking in the UK is far worse. Whats your point gremaldi?
Imported
Yeah yeah. Always provoked. I get provoked daily by people not indicating right at a roundabout, or putting cheese in when I said no cheese, or not wearing a mask I’m fosters. Define ‘provoked’. He stabbed him.
CNS: please allow this post… I accept the court of law and prosecution aim to maximize chance of conviction, but we need a campaign to rid the island of these violent thugs.
i guess you missed the part where it said the fight was started by the deceased and his brother. the concept might be novel to you but a physical fight is quite different from the provocation you’re describing.
“Define ‘provoked'”:
Penal Code s.186:
“Where on a charge of murder there is evidence on which the jury can find that the person charged was provoked (whether by things done or things said or by both together) to lose his self-control, the question whether the provocation was enough to make a reasonable man do as he did shall be left to be determined by the jury; and in determining that question the jury shall take into account everything both done and said according to the effect which in their opinion it would have on a reasonable man.”
He’s still going to prison. It will just be for less time because the court is able to take all the circumstances into account. Not really that unreasonable.
Someone putting cheese on your burger wouldn’t give you a defence to murder.
It seems hard to lay the blame on one person when the victim and another were attacking. She metime you get what you get when you put yourself in a situation that is bound to have an unpredictable outcome.
Gotta love our justice system! Bryan pulls a Rittenhouse and gets the book thrown at him! It would be an easy acquittal for me if I was on the Jury!
Rittenhouse defended himself and was found not guilty. I can remember 50 years ago when people were allowed to have guns. Crime was so low, no one would dare approach a property day or night. You had to call out at the gate. That was the way it was.
Which idiot would charge after anyone they see has a gun? An insane person, true? Would you let anyone take a semiautomatic weapon out of your hand? So what were they thinking?
Previous convictions with an “s.” Wonder what the others were beside the “imitation firearm” which in normal language means he had a gun during the holdup but ditched it somewhere. Give him enough time that he actually serves at least 10.
Agree. No doubt he really strived to succeed in hospitality or financial services as a caymanian and was harshly treated by the old governments. More likely he’s a criminal. There can never be any excuse for violence, robbery. Theft, rape or any other form of law breaking. Take him down.
6:00 ,pm give him 30 years remember the dead one is gone forever and forever