December 9 sentencing for 4 year-old gay lover beheading case in St Ann

In a follow up to a case I have been tracking since 2012 of the beheading of a man in St Ann one of the accused is to be sentenced in the St Ann Home Circuit Court on December 9 after he was convicted of the murder, he is Howard Ricketts, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution, DPP says Ricketts helped his co accused Neville ‘Garnet’ Lewis murder Burnett Thomas back in March 2012 at his Brown’s Town home in St Ann the deceased was said to have had an intimate relationship with the accused. On the day of his death they had a dispute reportedly Lewis otherwise called ‘Garnet’ accused the deceased Mr Thomas of infecting him with HIV Ricketts testified that on the morning of the incident he saw Lewis use a machete to chop Mr Thomas on the left side of the neck he said then Lewis told him he had to take part in the act.

here was the TVJ report then:

TVJ March 25th Headless Man Story & Suspicions from GLBTQJA 

Rickets said he assisted Lewis to pull Mr Thomas to the bedroom where he then inflicted stab wounds to the chest and intestinal area with a machete as well. Lewis enraged subsequently use the machete to sever the head of Thomas then placed it in a rice bag, police acting on information proceeded to the house where smoke was seen coming from one of the room windows, firemen who also arrived on the scene to extinguish the flames when they discovered the body of a naked headless man lying on his back was seen on the also partially burnt mattress. He was later identified to be Mr Burnett Thomas; the body had several stab wounds with reportedly intestines protruding.

Rickets said in an unsworn statement indicated that he stabbed the deceased approximately three times and that Lewis chopped off the head of the deceased after the incident Ricketts said he was so scared he got dressed and left for work as usual. On March 29, 2012 an eyewitness residing nearby said a foul stench was in the air and went to investigate and found the decomposing head of what appeared to be a male with flies encompassing it in close proximity to their house in Orange Hill District, Brown’s Town St Ann, the head was later identified to be that of the deceased. On April 2, 2012 the accused Howard Ricketts was charged.

When cautioned he said:

“Officer a de boi Garnet cause dis pon mi enuh, a him seh mi fi help and look wah happen”

(Officer is the boy Garnet cause this on me you know, he said I should help him now look what has happened)

On May 26, 2014 Neville ‘Garnet’ Lewis pleaded guilty to murder while his co accused was found guilty late last month.

As word of this case spreads comments continue to conflate crimes of passion beliefs versus reported homophobic driven murders all because of one case, those who supposedly oppose homosexuality of the removal of amendment of the buggery law, it was earlier this year as well we saw a matter in western Jamaica where a teacher was found dead in his house also in a decomposing state and allegations were that a lovers’ quarrel led to the gruesome find as gays are supposedly jealous to the core. One or two murders that may appear to be domestic or intimate partner violence evidence cannot and ought not to be used to justify homophobia indeed condemning the deceased as deserving of their fate; and sometimes done in the name of God bizarrely.

Older more popular murder cases that are kept alive in media given the typed of attention and skewing deliberately or not of the situations and ignorance of gay life altogether; speculation is the driver on the crisis reporting front. Older terms that used to attend was “Sodomatical attack” as an old case in the 80s, September 28 1983 the day of the murder and May 30, 1984 is one such, the judge was scathing in his summation in that case as the man who was murdered as the Chauffeur one Anthony Angus in question was freed on the basis of the usually deceptively used ‘gay panic defense’ by defense council or prosecution and that the accused was ‘entitled to kill in justification’ of the deceased Desmond Schnoor a business also in St Ann as this beheading case, Mr Schnoor’s gun was used to kill him.

Angus testified that he went to the home of Schnoor after being asked to although he may have suspected he was gay and that was the supposed outcome as the business made a move on him, the question then as is now is why did Angus go in the first place if he knew or suspected Schnoor was gay? Sad that in that particular instance what appeared to be a lie to suit the national sentiments on male homosexuality went on to free an accused man; the truth may never have been revealed, there may have been a down-low element in that matter.

More anon

Peace & tolerance

H

also see/listen:

Chopped for girly walk, fingers almost severed in dispute 


Teacher found dead in home, crime of passion is suspected by cops

Oh Uncle Brian ....

Gay panic defense used to gain bail in penis biting case 

Bail offered in wounding case 

Brothers charged for killing suspected gay lover 

Gay on Gay violence on the rise

Gay panic defense used to gain bail in penis biting case

In a follow up to the immediate post on the bizarre outdoor sex matter (Principal in 'biting matter' chased from school) involving two men the case was heard recently but the gay panic defense strategy was used by the penis biting accused to wiggle his way from incarceration; he has been ridiculed according to two sources regarding the matter while under detention. 

In gay panic defense or the old definition in Jamaica known as sodomatical attack, the defendant claims that they have been the object of unwarranted homosexual romantic or sexual advances. The defendant finds the advances so offensive and frightening that it brings on some sort of a psychotic state characterized by unusual violence/rage or is seen as justified for 'retaliation' by the supposed victim against his attacker(s).

A successful bail application was made in the St Catherine Parish Court on behalf of a man who allegedly severely bit a complainant on his private (penis) body; if we are to believe that the perpetrator made an inappropriate pass then one would have left the car they were in and return to the nearby usually crowded Rodney's arms and would raise an alarm causing a crowd to descend, instead of sitting in the car without consent; and we are to believe this!

He would have ran from the car shouting and calling attention to the matter and usually claiming 'battyman' which with just a shout of such cause persons to go into paranoid mode and once the accused is identified then the assault/mobbing begins.

The Portmore resident who is charged with wounding with intent and larceny of motorcar was granted $200,000 bail with a surety.

In applying for bail Attorney-at-Law Ernest Smith told the court his client was only defending his integrity during the incident.

"This man who was a mentor,took my client out for drinks,then instead of driving him home turned into a Culdisac,where he tried to forced himself upon my client who refused his advances," Smith said with suppressed laughter inside the court room. Sadly this would really cause some raucous as one does not hear very often of member's items being bitten off. 

I do not buy this story of non-consent at all, I am too old to be duped by this one; why would one just leave with another man to a weekend night spot for fish as males together in today's phobic Jamaica; seeing how paranoid some of us can get and there is not some familiarity bordering on an intimate nature? 

And for the judge to buy into the dupe shows how our court magistrates are behind the cultural times in some respect to do with same gender liaisons.

He said to protect his dignity the 24-year-old man used a knife to stab the (a school's principal)complainant. The lawyer said the complainant jumped from the car and accused took control of the car and hit the complainant in the process.

Smith told the court his client reported the matter to the police the same night and nothing happened.

The complainant made a report three weeks later and his client was taken in custody.

Bail was subsequently granted on condition that he reports to the Caymanas police station,surrender hi travel document and reappear on July 19,2016.

Allegations before the court are that the day in question the accused injured the (principal) complainant as he attempted rob his motorcar.

A report was made to the police and the man subsequently arrested and charged by the police.

As the starring role was surmised in the form of the attorney representing the accused is antigay JLP affiliated politician Ernest aka Ernie Smith but it is a different Ernest Smith though it is not surprising that the GPD strategy was employed. Let us however remember this in 2009 when the other Ernie Smith insisted the buggery law should stay and he described homosexuals as nasty etc?:

Peace & tolerance

H

also see these related posts from here and sister blog GLBTQJA:
MP, Attorney, Ernest Smith sings different buggery tune 2009

Homophobic Violence Ernie Smith & Venom 2009

Would Lawyer MP Ernest Smith Represent Gays? 2009

Seven Year Gross Indecency Case continues in Home Circuit Court

Dwight Pusey a man who has accused of gross indecency twice involving other males as 'victims' had his bail extended in the home circuit court today. The matter has been languishing for some time now.

Mr Pusey was also accused of the same charge in 2009 but was freed then;

I had carried the update as follows: 

Doc Freed of Sexual Assault Charge

A medical doctor, who went on trial with two other men for an alleged sexual assault on a 23-year-old man, has been freed in the Gun Court.

Dr Dwight Pusey, Paul Wright and Richard Wedderburn, were freed after Supreme Court Judge Marjorie Cole-Smith upheld a no-case submission made by the men's lawyers.

The allegations are that on June 25, last year, the complainant was forced into an apartment near Eltham, Spanish Town, St Catherine, and sexually assaulted by four men.

gun was used

The complainant said that a gun was used during the incident He said one of the men took a gun and hit him in the head.

After the ordeal, the complainant made a report to the police and the three accused were arrested and charged with buggery, indecent assault and grievous bodily harm.

The complainant said he knew the three accused before the incident, but he did not know the fourth man. In his testimony, the complainant said the men used lubrication on him before he was buggered.

no medical evidence

After the Crown closed its case, defence lawyer Anthony Pearson, who represented Dr Pusey, submitted that there were too many discrepancies in the Crown's case. He said medical evidence did not support the complainant's evidence that he was lubricated and buggered. Pearson said no reasonable jury properly directed could convict on that evidence.

Defence lawyers Vincent Wellesley, Marjorie Shaw Currie and Deneve Barnett who represented the other two men adopted the submissions.

The judge upheld the submissions and freed the men. Dr Pusey has another case pending in the Home Circuit Court.

He is accused of gross indecency and the case has been set for trial on September 17. Dr Pusey's bail was revoked in April because of the allegations. He is now on $150,000 bail with a surety.

ENDS

A new mention date for the current matter has been set but not appearing in the criminal listings as yet of the Gross indecency for us to understand its relation to buggery in the sexual offences law.

What Jamaican Law says about Homosexuality:

Contrary to popular belief, it is not actually illegal to be homosexual in Jamaica. Being a homosexual does not contravene any of the existing laws; however, the law makes certain ‘homosexual acts’ illegal, and these laws are used to persecute gay men. They state that “acts of gross indecency” and buggery [anal sex] are illegal. 

Although buggery refers to anal sex between a man and another man, a woman or an animal, in practice the law is predominately enforced against two men. Lesbians are also discriminated against in the wider society, however no laws target lesbians or lesbian conduct.

Offences Against the Person Act

This act prohibits “acts of gross indecency” between men, in public or in private. (This is a very general term which can be interpreted to mean any kind of physical intimacy)

Article 76 (Unnatural Crime)

“Whosoever shall be convicted of the abominable crime of buggery [anal intercourse] committed either with mankind or with any animal, shall be liable to be imprisoned and kept to hard labour for a term not exceeding ten years.”

Article 77 (Attempt)

“Whosoever shall attempt to commit the said abominable crime, or shall be guilty of any assault with intent to commit the same, or of any indecent assault upon any male person, shall be guilty of a misdemeanour, and being convicted thereof shall be liable to be imprisoned for a term not exceeding seven years, with or without hard labour.”

Article 78 (Proof of Carnal Knowledge)

“Whenever upon the trial of any offence punishable under this Act, it may be necessary to prove carnal knowledge, it shall not be necessary to prove the actual emission of seed in order to constitute a carnal knowledge, but the carnal knowledge shall be deemed complete upon proof of penetration only.”

Article 79 (Outrages on Decency)

“Any male person who, in public or private, commits, or is a party to the commission of, or procures or attempts to procure the commission by any male person of, any act of gross indecency with another male person, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and being convicted thereof shall be liable at the discretion of the court to be imprisoned for a term not exceeding 2 years, with or without hard labour.”

Sadly our courts despite very slow improvements in terms of men who are accused of compromising positions with other men are indeed very slow to end matters, I can attest to it in my own buggery case in 1996 (no minor was involved). It took three years at the resident magistrate level to have the matter adjourned sine die (can be revived within seven years if new evidence is found). During those waiting periods persons are reviled, forcibly evicted, victims of homo-negative comments or planned attacks, embarrassed and even threatened.

also see: 
Outdoor sex and the issues to being caught 2011

Kissing Men Walk Free from Court

Peace and tolerance

H

August 11 date Set for Testicle Grabbing Case

Some weird matters have been coming to the court rooms of Kingston as of late that makes me ponder now this latest in a series of man on man or man accusing other men of touching or grabbing is one to ponder usually cases such as these in times past tend to fizzle in court or are adjourned sine die as arresting officers can't be bothered to continue at the resident magistrate level anyway.

More serious cases of grievous sexual assault (anal play without a penis usually a tongue or device) or buggery that go to the Supreme Court are not treated lightly however and usually accused when found guilty serve the full sentences.

Man attacks senior who grabs his testicles

A gym instructor accused of beating up a man for a bag of charcoal told the court that he assaulted the man after he grabbed onto his testicles.

Jerome Sculley, 24, of Melbrook Heights, Harbour View in Kingston, was arrested and charged on May 10, with simple larceny and assault occasioning bodily harm.

Allegations are that around 8:30 am the complainant, who sells charcoal from a van, was exiting the Melbrook Heights community when Sculley approached him and begged him some of his coal. The complainant reportedly refused and Sculley pulled a bag of coal from the van and then grabbed at the 64-year-old complainant and threw him on the ground, before punching him all over his body.

Individuals who saw what was happening reportedly went to the complainant's aid and he ran to the police station and reported the matter.

However, Sculley denied the allegations. He told the court that he went to buy coal when a little boy came off the van and started using indecent language to him and he held onto the boy and asked him if he knew him and was attacked by the complainant.

"This man come out a nowhere and grabbed on pon me balls and when him grabbed on pon me balls me punch him," he said. "I was never beating him up, I was never punching him up."

Following Sculley's explanation the magistrate told him that she would have to send the matter to trial as he was acting in self-defence, if his story was true.

The matter was then scheduled for trial on August 11 and Sculley's bail was extended.

I find it a bi strange, self defence from what? if if this is true grabbing a man's testicle is not the same as trying to chop it off or causing any other harm, is this judge buying the implied sodomatical attack line here or the usual gay panic defence.

I was expecting a more gross indecency charge or a lesser charge seeing that maybe the older man felt he was too weak to attack an obvious bulky gym instructor type so he went after the best place that could weaken him and not make him over power the older man. 

Wonder where this one is going though, gonna have to try and follow it up and see but as said in the introduction some weird cases are coming to the fore and I wonder if the courts have time to waste on some of these matters.

Meanwhile there is deafening silence on the John Terry issue as was to have been mentioned last Friday but checking with sources for some details on that of if it was heard or mentioned at all as it some four years plus and that matter can't seem to get off the ground.

June 25 was the last date - 

The case against Richard Ewen, the man charged with the 2009 murder of British consul John Terry, has been set for mention on July 4.

The case was called up in the Montego Bay Resident Magistrate’s Court.

Ewen, who is of a Bull Bay address in St Andrew, received an extension of his bail from presiding magistrate Wilson Smith as the judge who had been hearing the case, Resident Magistrate Carolyn Tie, was absent.

Ewen was charged with Terry’s murder in October 2009 after he was found dead at his home in Mount Carey, St James, on September 10 that year.

Terry reportedly died as a result of strangulation.

Yesterday, Ewen’s attorney, Trevor Ho Lyn, sought to have the case deferred until a later date when RM Tie would be present to complete the matter.

Inmate attacks alleged gay prisoner

An inmate who reportedly beat up another inmate accused the prisoner of making sexual advances toward him. Another case of gay panic defence here or what and is it true. as these cases are often hard to prove in a limited witness situation unless the others who claimed they saw gang up on the accused to have him pay for something else as well, payback in the system can be a problem speaking from my own experience in the slammer for a short time.

The inmate, Nicholas Myles, who was recently sentenced to six months in prison for robbery with aggravation, was charged with assault occasioning bodily harm after he allegedly assaulted the complainant last Thursday in the Half-Way-Tree police lock-up.

Myles, however, denied the allegations.

"Your Honour, a him want touch me, a push him hand and try fi touch me and dem beat him. I didn't lick him," Myles said. He was remanded in custody until July 2.

According to police reports, Myles approached the complainant, who is charged with buggery, and asked him if he was in cell number 1 and called him a "groundser". Myles then reportedly asked the complainant if " bare b...man" were in the cell and the complainant told him that he was placed inside the cell because the others were full and that there were a lot of old people in the cell with him.

Myles then reportedly told the complainant to go under the bunk bed and he and another inmate reportedly kicked the complainant all over his body causing bruises.

Myles then reportedly told the complainant, "B...man fi dead and bad man nuh get charge fi dem tings deh."

It was also reported that Myles told the complainant that he was going to kill him if the matter went to court.

I am not sure why that threat was not taken seriously by the judge and some warning issued to the accused that if anything should happen to the "victim" he maybe held accountable for it.

also see:

Gay Panic Defence Strategy Fails in Court .......... Man Sentenced for 2 Years for Stabbing Doctor

Phone Found in Prisoner’s Rectum for a Second Time in Lockup

A cruiser’s mistake leads to another geographic change & public resistance

Gunmen force oral sex on male victim?

Situational Homosexuality or Behavioral Bisexuality ... a recap ... subsequent discourse so far 2011

Review condom policy for prisoners .

Male Rape .... nobody wants to talk about it

So thugs do love too ...... After being caught in bed...Naked thugs pull guns on residents

Gay Panic Defence Strategy Fails in Court .......... Man Sentenced for 2 Years for Stabbing Doctor

Firstly the definition of Gay Panic Defence (US English may use "Defense":

In the gay panic defence, the defendant claims that they have been the object of homosexual romantic or sexual advances. The defendant finds the advances so offensive and frightening that it brings on a psychotic state characterized by unusual violence.

It was just yesterday I had hinted to the strategy sometimes via my last podcast that is used by some persons in incidents involving alleged gay men and other men (gay or not) in court to justify violent actions taken by them in supposed self defence to ward of unwanted sexual advances. Sometimes these advances cannot be proven and it seems this particular case is one such where experienced and sometimes controversial Judge Judith Pusey did not seem to have taken the bait according to the Star News:

The story read as follows:

MAN TELLS COURT ... DOCTOR OFFERED ME MONEY FOR SEX

Despite telling the court that he stabbed a doctor in self-defence, after the medical practitioner offered him money for sex, George Phillips was sent to prison.

"Mi never do it fi fame, Your Honour, di doctor did a bring gay argument to me," the accused told the court.

Phillips, 27, has been charged with unlawful wounding.

Senior Resident Magistrate Judith Pusey sentenced the accused to two years in prison after he pleaded guilty in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court last Friday.

The accused was previously remanded for psychiatric evaluation and was deemed fit to plea to the serious offence.

Allegations are that the accused showed up at the complainant's place of work when an argument developed. It is alleged that the accused left and then returned to the complainant's office where he used a knife to stab the doctor in his neck.

Before Phillips was sentenced, he told RM Pusey that he had contracted a sexual transmitted disease and that was his purpose for being at the complainant's office.

"Your Honour, mi girlfriend give me a disease and some little rash come upon mi. So mi go to di doctor and him a offer mi any amount of money for sex. Mi did have to defend myself and give him di knife in his neck," Phillips said.

The court heard that the accused had showed up at the doctor's office pretending that he was there for a follow-up visit, however, the doctor told the police that he was seeing Phillips for the first time.

ENDS

The archive above from way back in 1980 shows how long we have come with this strategy being used by accused persons, in some cases it maybe true but often times the evidence does not bear it out as was attempted in the Peter King murder trial as well and several other matters. 

Last year in October I questioned a similar case that appeared in the Observer on a then teen who allegedly killed a man who reportedly made several passes at him in the man's yard and he repeatedly visited the home none the less. 

See: Questions on reported murder/buggery case in court

I also understand the sexual grooming concept and the way in which abusers prepare and lure their victims even get them to come to them repeatedly on a premise of false trust and a reward of some kind with secrecy but the details of that case as it played out in court did not set a trend of that nature and it was the same Judge Pusey who heard the matter.

It seems some resident magistrates are seeing the various issues with more clarity and not just freeing persons simply on the merit of self defence masked in the trial as a gay panic response and are delving more to get the psychological tenets of the matters and sequence of events to find truth.

Thank God

Peace and tolerance

H

Courtesy Corps officer stabbed to death at home for alleged sexual advance in Western Jamaica

CONFIRMED: 

A tourism Courtesy Corps officer (often called tourism police) was stabbed to death at his home in Granville, St James on Wednesday morning, February 5, in what is said to have been over unrequested sexual advances. Dead is Peter Lewis, otherwise “Peaty” 43, courtesy corps officer of Brown’s Lane s in Granville. 

Typical courtesy cop uniform in Western Jamaica and now also in New Kingston

Meanwhile the 26-year-old accused, who police say has confessed to the killing, has been taken into custody. 

Reports by the police are that about 5:45 am, on Wednesday both men were at a house in Granville when a domestic dispute developed between the two. A knife which was brought into play was used to inflict over fifteen stab wounds to Lewis’ face and upper body.The wounded man was rushed to the Cornwall Regional Hospital where he was pronounced dead. 

Reports are that Lewis met up with the accused in Kingston late last year and promised to get him a job with the Courtesy Corps whose members operate from Gloucester Avenue in Montego Bay, St James. It is further reported that the accused went to Montego Bay and had been staying at the home of the deceased for a while now.The accused man indicated that on Wednesday morning he was at the house when Lewis started to act in what he suggested was an inappropriate sexual manner and made several sexual advances toward him. 

He further stated that he cautioned Lewis but instead Lewis grabbed hold of him and a struggle ensued. It is reported that a knife was brought into play and Lewis was stabbed several times.The Granville and Freeport police are investigating.

Clear panic defence here is at work I find it strange that both men are cohabiting and then this all of a sudden, In the gay panic defense, the defendant claims that they have been the object of homosexual romantic or sexual advances. The defendant finds the advances so offensive and frightening that it brings on a psychotic state characterized by unusual violence. Such cases come to mind from the past include the Ambassador Peter King matter.

see: Peter King's Murderer Seeks Help To Pursue Appeal

Observer: Man before court for killing alleged homo .... gay panic defense again 

Sad that this had to happen but sometimes we may never know the full truth in cases such as this.

Peace and tolerance

H

Doc freed of sexual assault charge

A medical doctor, who went on trial with two other men for an alleged sexual assault on a 23-year-old man, has been freed in the Gun Court.

Dr Dwight Pusey, Paul Wright and Richard Wedderburn, were freed after Supreme Court Judge Marjorie Cole-Smith upheld a no-case submission made by the men's lawyers.

The allegations are that on June 25, last year, the complainant was forced into an apartment near Eltham, Spanish Town, St Catherine, and sexually assaulted by four men.

gun was used

The complainant said that a gun was used during the incident He said one of the men took a gun and hit him in the head.

After the ordeal, the complainant made a report to the police and the three accused were arrested and charged with buggery, indecent assault and grievous bodily harm.

The complainant said he knew the three accused before the incident, but he did not know the fourth man. In his testimony, the complainant said the men used lubrication on him before he was buggered.

no medical evidence

After the Crown closed its case, defence lawyer Anthony Pearson, who represented Dr Pusey, submitted that there were too many discrepancies in the Crown's case. He said medical evidence did not support the complainant's evidence that he was lubricated and buggered. Pearson said no reasonable jury properly directed could convict on that evidence.

Defence lawyers Vincent Wellesley, Marjorie Shaw Currie and Deneve Barnett who represented the other two men adopted the submissions.

The judge upheld the submissions and freed the men. Dr Pusey has another case pending in the Home Circuit Court. 

He is accused of gross indecency and the case has been set for trial on September 17. Dr Pusey's bail was revoked in April because of the allegations. He is now on $150,000 bail with a surety.