A Sion Hill Man, apparently not happy with the decision of the court to free a villager he had accused of wounding him, immediately after the court proceedings threatened to kill the man.
Lawyer Jomo Thomas reported the development to Senior Magistrate Rickie Burnett shortly after he had handed down his decision at the Kingstown Magistrate’s Court on June 16.
Burnett had ruled that Dezico Francois had acted in self defence when he wounded Matthews Charles at Sion Hill on Sept. 13, 2017.
Francois’ case was that he was at his fruit stand when he saw Charles staring him down.
He asked Charles what he wanted and Charles left, returning a few minutes later with a cutlass.
Francois ran and Charles struck him in the back with a stone.
Later that day, Francois saw Charles and his father in the public road in Sion Hill and was about to complain to Charles’ father.
By the time he said, “Good afternoon”, Charles jumped Francois and Charles father and another friend joined in the fracas.
Because Francois was selling fruits, he had a knife in his bag, which he pulled out and stabbed Charles, resulting in a superficial wound.
Shortly after the judgment, the complainant, the defendant and Thomas left the court.
Thomas, however, returned shortly after and told the magistrate that he had heard Charles tell Francois that he would kill him.
The lawyer said that Charles’ mother apparently heard when he told his client that he was going to tell the court about the development and Charles’ father said that Charles was joking.
Burnett told the lawyer to also advise his client to report the development to the police.