A twenty-five year old man from the village of Mt Moritz in St. George’s has been sentenced to twenty years behind bars after pleading guilty to murdering a St. George’s business woman and dumping her body over a cliff in the south of the island.
High Court Judge Shiraz Aziz presiding at the Number One High Court in St. George’s on Tuesday had the two-decade sentence handed down on Kevin Morris, the man who admitted murdering his employer Maudlyn Laurena Redhead. Redhead’s body was found days after she was reported missing at the base of a thirty-foot cliff in the Quarantine Point area in Grand Anse.
According to information from the court Mrs. Redhead was due to show up for a staff meeting on the 3rd of January 2012 at he business place “Laurena Tiles” in Woodlands but failed to do so that morning, Morris who normally transported her to work, called later that morning to complain that he had some problems with the vehicle, had to take a bus and therefore was going to be late for work.
When confronted by the police some time after, he admitted to the police that he did pick up Mrs. Redhead but had dropped her off at the bus terminal. He then told the police at a subsequent time, that he had dropped her off in Grand Anse before eventually accepting responsibility for her disappearance.
His report, according to the evidence was that he was driving Redhead to work, when she began accusing him of breaking into her business place. An argument ensued before she started hitting him, he then punched her twice to the head, he assumed she was dead, and proceeded to dump the body over a cliff in the Quarantine Point.
An autopsy carried on the body revealed that Mrs. Redhead had sixteen wounds, including a broken nose, fractured vertebra among others; her death was listed as a result of blunt force trauma.
At the Court on Tuesday, Crown Counsel Howard Pinnock dubbed Morris as someone who was not of previous good character and showed little remorse for his action.
His defense counsel Peter David on the other hand had a different view, he noted that with the exception of one person who was interviewed, everyone confirmed that Morris was a humble quiet man and they were shock to hear that he was involved in such an action.
Morris also had an opportunity to address the court and took the opportunity to apologize to the Redhead family for the pain that he has put them through and sought their forgiveness.
In handing down sentence judge Aziz described the incident as extremely sad and unfortunate and regretted that it had taken that long before coming to an end. He noted that the loss would have placed a lifetime sentence of pain and stress on the life of the Redhead family and therefore demanded a custodial sentence that would send the right message.
Morris was therefore sentenced to 20 years in prison. In addition he is to undergo anger management for two years failure to do which he would be brought back before the court and be sentenced to two additional years to run consecutively.
Mean while in related news
A man charged in connection with the death of New Hampshire resident Kareem Morain was sentenced to nine years behind bars.
Ally Mills had the sentence of the court imposed on him on Tuesday by High court judge Shiraz Aziz presiding at the Number One Supreme Court.
Morain met his death during fight in the New Hampshire area in April of 2015 that involved the use of cutlass, bottle and other dangerous weapons. Morain received multiple wounds to his abdomen, his death according to medical the report was due to hypovolemic shock.
Judge Aziz attributed the incident leading to Morain’s death, as one that speaks to public disorder, senseless, on the part of people just drinking and having a good time.
However in delivering sentence he took into consideration the fact that Morain had pleaded guilty to manslaughter and did not waste the court’s time or put the victim’s family through undue trauma.
His nine-year sentence would be accessed on a six-month basis and time spent on remand at the prison would be taken into consideration.