By LAMECH JOHNSON

Tribune Staff Reporter

ljohnson@tribunemedia.net

A MAN appeared in the Court of Appeal yesterday ready to argue his own case against conviction and 30-year sentence for a near-fatal shooting of a woman who is now paralysed for life.

Tamiko Arthur, 33, told Justices Christopher Blackman, Abdulai Conteh and Neville Adderley that he was ready to proceed with the matter without his court-appointed lawyer, Bernard Ferguson, who asked for leave to withdraw after discussion with his client.

The court noted, however, that Arthur’s written submissions had not been filed and granted him an adjournment to September 4 to prepare for the appeal.

In July 2012, a jury unanimously convicted Arthur of attempted murder and two counts of armed robbery on April 17, 2010.

The victim was Inga Trotman, who had stopped to ask for directions when she could not find her colleague’s home in Pinewood Gardens.

Evidence revealed that Arthur agreed to help her find a church in the area.

He got into the driver’s seat of her vehicle, but instead of driving to the church, he put a gun to her back and pulled the trigger before leaving the woman to die as he pulled off in the car a friend had loaned her.

Trotman was left paralysed and the bullet remains inches away from her heart.

At the time of sentencing, Justice Bernard Turner, said that the maximum penalty for both armed robbery and attempted murder was life imprisonment.

However, bearing in mind the convict’s age, probation report, psychiatric report, victim impact and the nature of the offences, he sentenced Arthur to 20 years jail on both counts of armed robbery and 30 years for attempted murder, the sentences to run concurrently.