An article that appeared in the Island Times on Tuesday August 7th regarding the prison escape of convicted murderer Amador Osima, included a paragraph that unintentionally misattributed some comments from court records relating to Osima’s 2013 sentencing for second-degree murder.
The article was correct to state that after Osima’s sentencing, a judge had noted that “Taking the life of Ms. Ventura because that was the day the defendant wanted to kill a person is an evil act that shows no regard for the value of human life. The defendant is a danger to society”.
However, the article erroneously attributed a second set of comments to the post-conviction remarks of the judge. This quotation wrongly attributed to the judge stated “there are no words to describe the agony and terror Ms. Ventura suffered at the hands of the defendant. The nature and circumstances of the offence… are some of the most violent, senseless and gruesome of any in the history of the Republic.”
The Island Times has confirmed that these specific comments were in fact not made by the judge in the case, but were from a sentencing-related report by the Republic that is also part of the court record.
We apologise sincerely for this error and oversight.
Moreover, on its front-page on the same day, the Island Times erroneously stated that the victim of a serious sexual crime committed by Mr Osima in January 2011 was a “5-year old boy”. We wish to correct this and clarify that the victim of this serious sexual crime committed by Mr Osima was in fact a “5-year old girl”, according to official records. This inaccurate gender identification of the victim was the result of incorrect information provided to the Island Times by a person familiar with the case.