Nassau, BAHAMAS- A man accused of strangling his 58-year-old father will undergo a psychiatric evaluation in prison.
Chief Magistrate Joyann Ferguson-Pratt made the order after Selwyn Seymour appeared before her accused of the March 23 murder of Dwight Ricardo Seymour.
Prosecutors say strangled his father at the home they shared on Beaumontia Avenue in Gardens Hills before burying his body in the yard.
Police arrested Seymour on suspicion of murder after finding the body.
Seymour was not required to enter a plea to murder charge. He spoke only to give his date of birth when he appeared before the chief magistrate.
Defense lawyer Ian Cargill asked the court to order a psychiatric evaluation because his client had a known history of mental illness.
The magistrate said that the testing could not take place at Sandilands Rehabilitation Centre.
However, she directed that doctors from the Sandilands Rehabilitation Centre performed the evaluation as “soon as reasonably practicable.”
Cargill emphasized that Seymour’s fitness to plead would be an issue at his arraignment in the Supreme Court.
Prosecutors intend to send the case to the Supreme Court by a voluntary bill of indictment on May 27.
In the interim, Seymour has been remanded to the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services.
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