A Green Hill man who was in April 2017 freed of a murder charge because the file in the case was not ready has become the 44th homicide victim in St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) this year.
Deshawn Slater, 26, was found dead in Murrary’s Village with what appears to be a gunshot wound to the head.
His death takes the homicide count in SVG two higher than the record 42 set in 2022 –with about eight weeks left in the year.
On Aug. 1, 2016, Slater, then serving a three-year jail term for firearm possession, was charged with the 2014 murder of fellow villager, Aninka Stowe.
Stowe died at the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital on Oct. 20, 2014, where she was taken after being shot in the chest in Green Hill around 9 p.m.
However, on April 3, 2017, Chief Magistrate Rechanne Browne dismissed the murder charge against Slater after the court heard that the file was still at the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution, and therefore, the prosecution was not ready for a preliminary inquiry.
The matter had come up for hearing a number of times before the chief magistrate dismissed the charge, noting the length of time that had elapsed.
On Feb. 10, 2015, Browne sentenced Slater to three years in prison for possession of a firearm, without a licence.
He was arrested in Green Hill two days earlier when police found the weapon in a sack he was carrying.
Slater told the court that he had found the weapon, which was not loaded, while digging dasheen, and was going to take it to the police.
KARMA – He took a life ,now someone has taken his – What does that say about the justice system????
Unfortunately he wouldn’t be miss
It could be up for speculation as to whether a petulant dismissal led to vigilante justice.
Justice delayed is justice denied?
My brother wasn’t a murder & he will forever be missed!!!
You won’t be either
SJ where were you when your brother was behaving deviantly? He [allegedly] took someone life right or wrong? You live by the sword and die by it. It is miscreants tike your brother that make the streets of St Vincent unsafe and confined law abiding citizens to be prisoners of their house. You have the opportunity to examine your own life as it would appear to have the same upbringing. The guava don’t fall far from the tree.
SJ you have a right to miss your brother, however, some people may be saying good riddance for being a nuisance of society. I will like to tell us what kind of parents you had. This is not a trial by public opinion but it would appear that neither you nor him had a proper upbringing. One less problem society has to deal with.
My only hope that he did not leave any children to be a scorn and blight of this world. This statement is not far fetched. What goes around come around. In the absence of real justice, vigilante justice will supercede as in Columbia. Authorities please take note.
Just wow with some these comments.