Page 82 - Magistrates Conference 2019

SITUATION 3:

46 THE STATE v GEOFFREY BARATHEON
For Murder

On the 18th March, 2014, Geoffrey Baratheon, pleaded guilty to murder on the basis of the felony murder construct.

The deceased, Edward Stark, was a part-time taxi driver. On the 1 April, 2014, at around 6:30pm he left his home to ply his taxi, and was never seen alive again. The following day, his wife reported him missing at the Winterfell
st
Police Station. On the 3 April, 2014, police officers recovered the deceased’s vehicle abandoned at King’s Landing. Two days later, his body was discovered lying face down in a shallow river in King’s Landing. He was gagged
rd
with a piece of cloth and hog-tied, with his two hands tied behind his back and bound to his feet. The post-mortem examination report revealed that the deceased had sustained 7 incised wounds to the front of his head and 16 to the
back.

On the 10th April, 2014, police officers were conducting inquiries into the murder of the deceased in the King’s Landing area when they met Geoffrey, who agreed to be interviewed. At the interview, Geoffrey revealed that on the 1
st
April, 2014, he received a telephone call from Tywin Lannister who asked him if he had a cutlass to which he responded in the affirmative. Tywin requested that he meet him at a certain location with the cutlass. Geoffrey went to the
location and after waiting for several minutes, he saw Tywin driving the deceased’s vehicle with two other passengers inside, Cersei and Jamie. Jamie was holding the deceased in a headlock while Cersei was restraining his
hands. Geoffrey thought that they were going to rob the deceased. He got into the vehicle.

The men took the deceased to a nearby deserted road and upon being instructed by Tywin to hand over the cutlass, Geoffrey did so. The deceased was begging that the men take his car and spare his life. Tywin then cut a piece of
the old jersey and gagged the deceased. He then tore the old jersey into pieces and bound the deceased’s hands and feet and then took a longer piece of cloth and tied his hands and feet together. Tywin and Jamie then took the
deceased to the nearby river bank and Tywin proceeded to kick the deceased who rolled down into the river. Geoffrey was then told to chop the deceased but he refused. At that time, Geoffrey suspected they were going to kill the
deceased. Tywin then ran into the river and started firing chops at the deceased. After a while, Geoffrey asked if the deceased was dead. However, the deceased was still moving and Cersei then took the cutlass from Tywin and
chopped the deceased until he was dead.

At a second interview, Geoffrey agreed to take the police to the scene of the crime. Upon visiting the scene of the crime, Geoffrey pointed out certain areas where the incident took place.

Geoffrey had no pending charges and no previous convictions. He spent 3 years and 3 months in pre-trial custody.

Over the years, there had been an upsurge of murders and offences for gain in Winterfell where the offence in question occurred. In previously decided cases in that jurisdiction, a starting point of 32 years was accepted as
appropriate for similar offences, 35 years being reserved for those offences on the upper reaches of the scale of seriousness.