GT man gets 10 years for club car park killing

| 15/12/2021 | 29 Comments
Cayman News Service
Mason Bryan

(CNS): Mason Courtney Bryan (29) was handed a ten year prison term on Wednesday for the manslaughter of Recardo Lionel Pars in a nightclub car park at The Strand plaza in August last year. Bryan stabbed Pars during a fight in which prosecutors accept both Pars and his younger brother attacked Bryan, provoking the escalation of the violent encounter.

As he handed down his decision, Justice Roger Chapple accepted that Bryan had a right to defend himself with reasonable force but said that this was way beyond reasonable.

While Bryan may have picked up the knife during the fight, he chose to use it and killed Pars, the judge said.

The fight was only partially caught on CCTV, and Justice Chapple noted that it was difficult to put together the full picture of what happened that night based on evidence from witnesses and Bryan, given that it was dark, fast moving and probably frightening for all those involved.

“But there came a time when it was clear you were under attack,” he said to Bryan.

The crown had changed the charge from murder to manslaughter, as the evidence that emerged shed light on the circumstances. Bryan pleaded guilty to that charge at the beginning of this year, which led Justice Chapple to reduce his original fifteen-year prison sentence to ten years, giving him full credit for the admission.

The judge said that Bryan was no stranger to violence, having been jailed in 2014 for an armed robbery. However, Justice Chapple said he believed that in this case Bryan had not intended to kill Pars, though he had clearly meant to inflict very serious harm. Pars was stabbed in both the leg and the chest.

Justice Chapple described the case as tragic for the Pars family, who had spoken movingly of the deceased, who was the elder brother to four siblings and the father of a five-year-old boy.

“Pars was the same age as you and had his whole life ahead of him… which was unnecessarily cut short,” the judge told Bryan, as he handed down his sentence, noting that this was another case that would add to the worrying statistics of knife crime in the Cayman Islands.


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Category: Courts, Crime

Comments (29)

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  1. Anonymous says:

    #RollsEyes .. did you read the article??? The blue font is actually a hyperlink to the CNS 2014 article where the comment is the first one …

    The bigger picture is that in 6 years or less he is back at it as he is home grown … lets hope he doesn’t already have baby criminals learning the trade… #Endlesscycle

  2. Anonymous says:

    Should have walked free, these punks going out at night looking trouble deserve what they get. You cant beat the hell out of someone and expect nothing to happen. Dont feel sorry for the victim.

  3. Anonymous says:

    We need the 3 strikes and you are out law here. Repeat offenders need to have mandatory jail time without the possibility of parole.

  4. Anonymous says:

    Can we please move the nightclub and murders from smb to gt or wherever these guys live!

  5. Anonymous says:

    probably out in 6 weeks with time served, mandatory early parole, and revolving door prison policy.

    • Anonymous says:

      6.49pm You’re so right. Everyone critizises the RCIPS & DPP but we never hear complaints about the Parole board and the policies they operate under. I know of persons under 10 year sentence, out in a few to commit another serious crime, then sentenced to 8 years and still out after a couple years.

      • Anonymous says:

        9:39, people like you are the problem in Cayman, crawl back under the rock where you should always stay

  6. Anonymous says:

    These guys really think these stupid gangsta poses and tattoos make them tough and cool, don’t they? Ferking hidjuts. All they can do is make babies, beat up the women, beat up and sometimes kill each other and sit on their asses in jail waiting to get out to do it all over again. Wasted f**ks, every one of them.

    • Anonymous says:

      Stupid ,stupid women having babies with the likes of these men, then crying to Government for support.

      • Anonymous says:

        @6:14 NAU encourages this this behavior and cycle by sponsoring these low lives with everything needed from Diapers to food and shelter.

  7. Anonymous says:

    Deportation order?

  8. Anonymous says:

    I guess 10 years is better than nothing but seems low for a life lost.

    • Anonymous says:

      IDK, Recardo Lionel Pars began his quadruple burglary sentences at 17, and came to the club that night with a concealed weapon that he used, misplaced, and in the struggle it was used against him. It should really be a teachable moment for capos that bring these weapons to nightclubs looking for trouble, thinking that’s going to work out well for them after a full evening of drinks, drugs, and ego/turf flexing. Shouldn’t we also ask why and how these low-lifes are allowed to assemble Friday after Friday at a teen hotspot in hotel tourism zone, at which there are incidents every open night, without there being any normalised police supervision? Why aren’t the mall-owners or club licensees culpable in these patron security incidents?

  9. Anonymous says:

    I understand that the law permits persons to carry knives with a blade of length to 4 inches. The law needs to be cancelled as carrying a knife of any length should not be allowed in any civilized society as this encourages exactly what happen in this case. Lawmakers this need to be urgently addressed.

    • Anonymous says:

      Its not the knife that kills its the person holding it. Its like a car, the car doesn’t kill but all those bad drivers in Cayman are operating weapons.

      • Anonymous says:

        Ok to walk around with a gun then?

      • Anonymous says:

        The blade certainly helps. These aren’t trades tools like leathermans or swiss army knifes, these are razor sharp box cutters and/or purpose-specific tactical self defense and close combat maiming weapons, intentionally concealed and carried to the club where convicted criminals gather, knowing and expecting trouble. Let’s also consider that there are also, sadly, kids gathering in parking lot speak easy as young as 13, and they are exposed to being prayed-upon by these same dangerous flaunting narco-gang recidivists. No liquor inspections or suspensions. No fire code inspections or fines. No Covid compliance. DUIs and violent incidents every Friday payday since time began, and rarely any of our >400 full-time cops that can figure this recipe out, and though predictably dispatched, don’t bother to pre-emptively attend the area. It’s not unusual for there to be 2 or 3 aggressive scenarios unfolding simultaneously at closing time in that parking lot, right in the heart of Cayman’s Hotel Tourism Zone. Let’s get rid of those weapons and clean this whole situation up.

        • Anonymous says:

          9:39, people like you are the problem in Cayman, crawl back under the rock where you should always stay

      • Anonymous says:

        Changing legislation on blade or no-blade won’t make a difference. Do you really think the would-be criminal is going to second guess carry a weapon because its’ now considered illegal vs. not illegal? I think not. And if your further argument is that by not having the ability to purchase the “weapon” in the first place – I ask you to suggest what we are to do when the need arises to cut a piece of beef? Perhaps a plastic knife will do?

    • Anonymous says:

      Then how we going to eat and cook without knife?!

    • Anonymous says:

      Yea let’s ban carrying gardening tools as well. While we are at it let’s make sure nobody can drive a car, pickup a conch shell etc

      The problem is not the object it’s the individual and treating the symptom doesn’t cure the disease

  10. Anonymous says:

    Once again the published remarks indicate the judge did not discuss this criminals bad effect on all the people who have to live around such dangerous trash. If he was going to be locked up 10 years that would be one thing, but we know he will be released long before that. Judges, you have to take these criminals out of circulation for longer than you are doing. Why don’t you advocate for a bigger prison sometimes, instead of demanding a bigger courthouse?

  11. Anonymous says:

    This time he’ll be out in 5!!

  12. Anonymous says:

    A commenter from the old article where he was arrested for robbery:

    Anonymous says:
    03/02/2014 at 2:46 pm
    Can.t be bother to read the whole article. Only 4 years for this, come on he is going to serve 1 1/2 yrs, get out and do it all over again, plus he owes drug dealers $2800, well when giving him the 4 yrs sentence tell this CRIMINAL that he has to tell you who he owes the money too…

    Can’t beleive this, this is why we will continue to have criminals on our streets low jail time..

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