Four days after Kazim Alexander escaped an immediate jail term for beating, at a funeral, Paul Stephens, who was falsely accused by some as having caused his (Stephens’) girlfriend’s death by beating her, Alexander was jailed for an attack on his own girlfriend — who is pregnant.
But, last Friday, March 26, Alexander was jailed after beating his pregnant girlfriend two days earlier because his head was “hot” as a result of a court fine.
Alexander, 23, of Chauncey, appeared before the Serious Offences Court where he pleaded to a charge that on March 24, at Chauncey, he assaulted his girlfriend, Hazell Ann Horne, 29, of Chauncey, causing actual bodily harm.
The facts of the case are that Horne saw Alexander looking uneasy and asked him what was wrong.
He told her that he had a court fine to pay and did not want to go to prison.
The woman consoled him, telling him to keep the faith.
Sometime later, Alexander was eating food in a bedroom when Horne told him that she hoped he had not eaten all of the food as her 4-year-old son, who is not Alexander’s child, was yet to eat.
In response, Alexander told Horne that he did not want to hear any noise in his head as his head was “hot”, and began to beat the woman.
He also choked her.
One of Alexander’s brothers later learned about his assault of the woman and reported the matter to the Questelles Police Station.
When Alexander was cautioned, he told the police that it was merely a misunderstanding between him and his girlfriend.
In court, Alexander told Chief Magistrate Rechanne Browne it was just a “small lash” that he had given Horne.
But the chief magistrate pointed out the seriousness of his actions, noting that in choking Horne, he could have cut off oxygen to the baby in her womb, resulting in injury to or the death of the unborn child.
She sentenced Alexander to 10 months in prison for his crime.
The chief magistrate also activated a bond that Senior Magistrate Rickie Burnett had imposed on Alexander just four days earlier.
Last week Monday, March 23, at the Kingstown Magistrate’s Court, Burnett convicted Alexander and three other men on various charges relating to their attack on Paul Stephens during the May 2018 funeral of his girlfriend, Je-Tonnia Thomas, of Chauncey”.
For disturbing Thomas’ funeral service, Burnett fined each defendant EC$750 to be paid by June 30 or spend six months in prison. For wounding Stephens, Alexander and his co-accused were each ordered to pay compensation of EC$500 each by July 30 or spend three months in prison.
On this charge, the defendants were also each bonded for one year in the sum of EC$1,500 to be paid forthwith or spend three months in prison.
For possession of an offensive weapon, Alexander was bonded for one year in the sum of EC$1,000 of three months in prison.
Stephesn, 32, was found dead on May 10, 2018, at the Kearton, Barrouallie home she shared with Stephens and their then-4-month-old child.
An autopsy revealed that she died of heart failure, resulting from an undiagnosed heart condition that made the organ larger than normal.
It had been rumoured that Stephens had caused Thomas’ death, but an autopsy concluded that she died of a heart condition that had caused the organ to be enlarged.
Stephens was attacked and beaten at the cemetery during Thomas’ funeral on May 27, 2018.
A video that circulated via social media soon after the incident shows a man, later identified as Stephens, being beaten viciously as he and other mourners paid their final respects to Thomas at the Chauncey Cemetery.
What a hot head.Now all this will put him on pause for a while.Jack a-s.