NASSAU- Murdered toddler D’onya Bella Walker’s mother has lost a court battle against the child’s father over where she should be buried.
Justice Loren Klein on Monday, December 6 dismissed an application by Ostonya Walker in which she sought full control of the four-year-old’s final resting place.
This means that Bella’s father, Deno Smith, will determine how and where she is buried.
Still, Justice Klein said he hoped the arrangements included Ostonya’s family. He said they were “also entitled to say their goodbyes in a respectful and dignified manner.”
Prosecutors have charged Ostonya’s live-in boyfriend, Darion Smith, with the child’s November 5 beating murder. She, too, is accused of contributing to her daughter’s untimely death and is charged with exposing the child to grievous harm and child cruelty.
However, the pending criminal charges did not play a role in Justice Klein’s decision to rule in favour of the father.
He said, “The court pauses here to make a significant observation: Ostonya is not on trial here, and neither is this a character contest between her and Deno. She is entitled to the constitutional presumption of innocence.”
Baby Bella was born out of wedlock on June 2, 2017 at the Rand Memorial Hospital in Freeport, Grand Bahama. Ostonya and Deno lived together from 2016 until a few months before Bella’s birth.
Although Deno is not registered on Bella’s birth certificate, Justice Klein said his paternity has never been in dispute.
Closest ties
Her father and his family had “Baby Bella from two weeks after her birth, while her mother pursued various job opportunities in Grand Bahama, Marsh Harbour Abaco and New Providence.”
Justice Klein said, “It seems she was content to leave the child in the care of her father and paternal relatives, although her evidence is that she did on a few occasions assume custody and care of Baby Bella.
“In what turned out to be a cruel twist of fate, she was returned to her mother in New Providence on 31 August 2021, apparently at the mother’s request. Two months and 5 days later she was dead.”
Justice Klein said, “The evidence is overwhelming as to where Baby Bella had the closest connections during her life, both temporally, geographically, and in terms of relationships.
“Although there are some minor disputes (and on this point I prefer the defendant’s evidence), it would appear that Baby Bella spent roughly two months and three weeks out of the four years of her tragically short life in Nassau.”
He said it was “a startling and somewhat sobering realization that the paternal caretakers have spent significantly more time with Baby Bella than her mother.”
