ABACO- Police are investigating the death of a man in Hope Town, Abaco as a suicide. According to police, people in the area met the white man hanging from a beam on his front porch around 1pm on December 4. They took him down and tried to revive him. The unidentified man was pronounced dead at the Marsh Harbour Clinic.
Bella’s death similar to another child abuse case
NASSAU- The murder of four-year-old Bella Walker has sparked outrage across the country. Bella’s death evokes memories of a similar case 14 years ago: the death of one-year-old Levano Brown. He, too, allegedly sustained serious injuries at the hands of his mother’s lover while she was at work.
Police arrested and charged Makisha Brown, 22, and her 17-year-old live-in boyfriend, Leroy Rolle, with his murder.
Here’s what happened.
On March 16, 2007 Brown and Rolle took Levano to the Skoorb’s Medical Centre, which was across the street from their apartment on East Street South.
He had a faint heartbeat and was not breathing. Dr Maurice Brooks asked Brown what had happened to the child. She told him that his “daddy”, meaning Rolle had beaten him with a belt.
The doctor noticed bruises on Levano’s chest, abdomen, legs and a mark on the forehead. Dr Brooks called an ambulance and Levano was taken to the Princess Margaret Hospital.
Dr. John Neely and a team of pediatric doctors attended Levano on admission to the Accident and Emergency Department. Dr. Neely said that Levano appeared to suffer from trauma. He was admitted to the intensive care unit, where he died from his injuries.
Old and recent injuries
Pathologist Dr. Caryn Sands found that his death was due to blunt force injuries to the head, torso and legs. He had broken ribs and bleeding in the brain.
The pathologist also saw healing scratches on the right shoulder, the upper of the right side of the chest, superficial healing scratches on the abdomen and multiple haphazard scratches on the left side of the lower back, and healed marks on the buttocks and the back of both legs.
In a statement to police, Rolle admitted to beating the toddler with a belt on either March 6 or 7 when he caught him trying to open the front door. Brown was not home.
He also claimed that the child fell in the tub during a bath and scraped his stomach on the faucet and bucked his lip. On that occasion, he was also alone with the child.
Trial and appeal
They were tried before then-Supreme Court Justice Anita Allen in 2010.
The jury acquitted the pair of murder but found them guilty of manslaughter. Rolle was sentenced to 25 years’ imprisonment and Brown was sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment.
However, at an appeal in 2011 the prosecution conceded that there was not enough evidence to charge Brown with murder. The prosecution also accepted that her case should not have gone to the jury. As a result, her conviction was overturned and she was released from prison.
In 2012, the Court of Appeal upheld Rolle’s conviction but reduced his prison sentence to 10 years.
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Rapper accused of murders denied bail
NASSAU- A judge has denied bail for rapper and accused killer Benji Jimbo.
Prosecutors say the 29-year-old rapper who sings about murders committed crimes in real life.
They allege that Benji Jimbo, whose real name is Braheem Charlton, is responsible for the August 9 murder of Dino Brown and the attempted murder of Dennis Bowles.
Both victims were shot in an ambush by two gunmen who emerged from a grey SUV, police said.
Charlton is also accused of the August 14 murder of Trainee Immigration Officer Laneisha Armbrister and the attempted murder of Drazen Dean.
The victims were stopped at an intersection in Victoria Gardens when the occupants of a grey SUV opened fire on their car, police said.
Charlton has been on remand at the prison since August.
17-year-old boy shot dead
GRAND BAHAMA – A 17-year-old boy is dead after he was shot outside a bar Friday night.
Police responded the shooting at Pinder’s Point, Eight Mile Rock around 8pm.
The teen was pronounced dead at the scene.
According to police, prior to the shooting the teen had been doing mechanic work on a car.
When he walked across the street, a gunman shot him multiple times.
Police said they are following leads in connection with the incident.
Shooting victim dies in hospital
NASSAU -Police are investigating a fatal shooting.
Authorities responded to a report of a shooting at Second Street, Coconut Grove around 12:20 pm on December 2.
However, by the time they arrived, the gunshot victim had already been taken to hospital by private car.
He died in hospital later that day.
Meanwhile, another gunshot victim is in hospital in serious condition.
Police said they received an alert about gunfire on Hospital Lane from the ShotSpotter system around 7 pm.
The victim, known as “Meat Man”, had been taken to hospital by private car before police officers arrived at the scene.
Appeal delay for women who killed teen over phone
NASSAU- The appeal of two women convicted of the stabbing murder of their former friend has been postponed until next year.
Defense attorneys Jairam Mangra and Marianne Cadet told the Court that missing transcripts had prevented them for preparing for the appeals of Zaria Burrows and Dervinique Edwards.
The appeal hearing is now set for January 27, 2022.
In June, Justice Cheryl Grant-Thompson sentenced the women to 28 years’ imprisonment for their respective roles in the murder of 19-year-old Breanna Mackey.
However, Justice Grant-Thompson gave the convicts credit for time spent on remand. With those deductions, Burrows will serve 26 years and three months and Evans will serve 25 years and two months.
Breanna Mackey was kicked, stomped, pelted with rocks and bottles and stabbed in a petty row over a broken phone January 25, 2018.
Jolika Dumosle, who owned the phone, took a plea deal and spent two years’ in prison.
Burrows, who was pregnant at the time, used her car to cut off Mackey as she walked along Key West Street with her sister. She remained in the car during the attack that led to Mackey’s death and acted as the getaway driver.
Her passengers Thea Williams, Matia Sylverain, Davonya Lawes, Dumosle and Edwards got out of the car and attacked Mackey.
Williams produced a knife and stabbed Mackey multiple times in the back.
After the brutal murder, the women went partying. Police arrested Williams, Sylverain, Lawes, and Edwards at a motel. The officers found them huddled in a tub in the bathroom.
Burrows surrendered to police the following day.
Burrows and Edwards rejected plea deals and went to trial.
Williams, 22, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to 25 years for stabbing Mackey. Sylverain, 18, who stomped Mackey, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to 12 years. Davonya Lawes, 19, and Dumosle, 18, who admitted throwing rocks and bottles at Mackey served two years after pleading guilty to causing harm.
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Fine for ex-inmate who threw ganja into prison
NASSAU – A man who threw nearly three pounds of marijuana into the prison has been fined.
Cleophus Smith, 29, tossed a black bag over the perimeter wall of the Bahamas Department of Corrections on May 25.
The bag contained marijuana and four cellular phones.
However, the banned items were seized by guards patrolling the compound before the inmates could get to them.
Police linked Smith to the drugs through his fingerprints.
Smith pleaded guilty to drug possession with intent to supply before his trial began on Thursday, December 2.
He was fined $2,500 or nine months in prison.
Smith is currently on remand for the robbery of a businessman of a deposit bag containing $5,236 outside the Bank of the Bahamas on the Tonique Williams Darling Highway on September 21.
He made the smuggling attempt weeks after being released on bail for the September 15, 2019 murder of Anthony “Tutu” Wright.
Smith is charged for the June 25 murder of Shavonna “Vonya” Adderley and the attempted murder of her uncle Avery Francis at First Street, Coconut Grove.
DPP wins VBI signing dispute
NASSAU- Director of public prosecutions Garvin Gaskin has won an appeal on a point of law over who he can designate to sign a voluntary bill of indictment.
The dispute arose after Canes Villus alleged that he had not been properly committed to stand trial in the Supreme Court on four counts of unlawful sexual intercourse because an African lawyer, who doesn’t have the right to practice in the Bahamian courts, signed the VBI on behalf of the DPP.
In an October decision, Justice Deborah Fraser agreed that Villus’ indictment was invalid since assistant director of public prosecutions, David Bakibinga, is not a qualified legal practitioner, as required by Section 258 of the Criminal Procedure Code.
However, the Court of Appeal said the judge was wrong to declare the VBI a nullity.
Appeal Court President Sir Michael Barnett said, “There is nothing in that section which prevents the Attorney General/DPP from authorizing any person from acting as his agent in signing the VBI.
“It specifically authorizes a legal practitioner to do so, but in my judgment, it would be impermissible to construe it as restricting the Attorney General/DPP from exercising his constitutional right to act through any other person he chooses. This construction does not do any violence to the language of section 258 and more importantly it gives effect to his wide powers conferred by Article 78.
Sir Michael continued, “It is not disputed that the person who signed the VBI was an agent of the DPP and authorized by him to sign the VBI. Indeed, the DPP is strenuously defending that action as his own. In the result there is no basis for saying that the VBI was not signed by the DPP or by that the signature on the VBI does not count as the signature of the DPP. For these reasons I do not agree that the VBI is invalid. The Supreme Court cannot treat it as a nullity. It is obliged to act on it.”
However, Sir Michael said the DPP caused the dispute “by acting through persons who are not legal practitioners when he has persons in his employ who are in fact legal practitioners.”
Sir Michael questioned why the DPP had not asked Parliament to amend Section 258 to say that a VBI can be signed by the DPP or any legal officer in his employ.
Murder investigation into inmate’s death
NASSAU -Police are investigating the death of an inmate at the Bahamas Department of Corrections as a murder.
Mikhail Miller, 29, was found unresponsive in his cell in the F Block in Maximum Security on November 1.
An autopsy has confirmed that he died as a result of blunt force trauma.
Miller was serving a three-month sentence for theft.
On October 8, he pleaded guilty to stealing a Samsung tablet, worth $200, and an Alcatel phone, worth $120, from his mother Rose Miller.
As part of his sentence, the magistrate ordered Miller to receive mental health treatment.
Sandilands Rehabilitation Centre has suspended new admissions. However, staff from the mental health hospital make regular visits to the prison.
Miller had served three months in prison earlier this year for stealing.
He had eight theft convictions and had been admitted to the mental hospital five times.
Ex-MP drops campaign poster theft case
NASSAU – Prosecutors have withdrawn the case against a man accused of stealing election campaign posters.
Police had Matthew Sandilands do the perp walk after then-National Security Minister Marvin Dames accused him of theft.
In a Facebook live video, Dames alleged that a Progressive Liberal Party campaign worker had removed his posters and replaced them with those of his opponent.
Soon after his video, Police Commissioner Paul Rolle formed an Election Investigation Unit.
Members of the unit alleged that Sandilands, between August 20 and 22, stole 55 campaign posters, valued at $495.
He denied the claim and was freed on $500 bail.
However, the case didn’t go to trial as expected on December 1.
The prosecutor, Sergeant Kenny Thompson, told Magistrate Shaka Serville that Dames, who lost his seat in the September 16 general election, didn’t want to pursue the case anymore.
As a result, the magistrate told Sandilands he was free to go.
