PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad – A 21-year-old mother will re-appear in court on November 12 after she was released on TT$75,000 on a charge of manslaughter in relation to the drowning death of her two-year-old baby.
Rizpah Sterling, appeared before acting Chief Magistrate Maria Busby Earle-Caddle on Monday after the charge was laid over the weekend on the advice from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
She was not called upon to plead to the indictable offence but her attorney, Henry Chase, in making an application for bail, said his client had a fixed place of abode and has never before found herself before the court for any offence.
Sterling is accused of unlawfully causing the death of her daughter, Isiahilla Sterling, on August 12, at Chagville Beach, Chaguaramas.
Isiahilla drowned while she and relatives were swimming . Sterling reportedly took her eyes off her daughter for a couple of minutes as she was tending to her other child. When she turned around she found her daughter floating in the water near to her, the Trinidad Guardian reported.
The woman’s lawyer said that the circumstances surrounding the death of the child was very tragic and that his client has even had to receive counselling as she continues to try coping with the loss of her daughter. He said she is also the mother of an eight-month old baby.
“That child was her life. She was her eye-ball and her death was accidental in nature. She is most regretful and sorrowful for her child’s death,” said the attorney.
The prosecution said it had no objection to bail. – CMC
