14-Year-Old to Stand Trial for Murder

St Kitts & Nevis : A fourteen-year-old Cayon boy accused of stabbing to death 14-year-old Bejay Dore will answer for the crime during the May Criminal Assizes.

The Assizes got underway yesterday (May 8) with several new and traversed matters. Justice Errol Thomas will preside.

The 14-year-old was charged with the murder at the age of ten, having allegedly stabbed Dore at Maynard’s Park on April 3rd, 2009. The two youngsters reportedly had a disagreement over the ball during a pick-up game on the community basketball court. The then-10-year-old left the Park, went to his grandmother’s house, returned to the scene with a knife and stabbed an unsuspecting Dore in the neck. The wounded teen ran for his mother’s house, only to collapse dead in his own yard.

After his arrest, he was released on bail and placed with his grandparents in the same village.

His is the only new murder trial on the docket. Five young men are also facing charges of murder, in addition to manslaughter, for a 2008 killing.

Nelson Challenger, 22, Shenroy Francis, 22, Jomi Rawlins, 23, Glenroy Smithen, 21, and Moses Gardener, 26, stand accused of beating to death 20-year-old Gregory Zakers of St. Paul, whose body was discovered at Black Rocks April 12, two days after he had left his home and disappeared. The group was arrested and charged with the offence on April 30th, 2008, with the exception of Gardener, who was charged in May.

That trial was initially set for 2010 but has been traversed for the past two years, during which time all five were remanded to prison.

Amal Whyte and Devon “Patches” Fyfield are scheduled to stand trial for the June, 2005 murder of popular businessman Hubert Phipps. Whyte, of Trafalgar Village, and Fyfield, of Wades Garden, were arrested July 3, 2009 and have been on remand ever since. Attorneys Jason Hamilton and Hesketh Benjamin will represent the two, respectively.

Denver Fyfield, 29, of Stapleton Village, is also set to face the Judge for the June 2010 murder of 27-year-old Stapleton Village resident Hendricks Roberts. Roberts was beaten to death, an autopsy had informed. Fyfield was arrested and charged on June 23, 2010. His murder trial was traversed from 2011.

20-year-old Jahari “Baddie” Bart and Kelroy “C-Face” Hazel, 23, both of St. Johnston Village are scheduled to go to trial for the April 6, 2011 shooting death of Laustin “Jamie” Williams, 27, son of retired Commissioner of Police Austin Williams. Their trial was traversed from the January 2012 Assizes. The pair will be represented by Attorney Chesley Hamilton.