Thank you for visiting WWW.BELGRAFIX.COM, "Grenada on the Internet, one byte at a time"

HOME	NOVEMBER 05th, 2005

The State has secured its first conviction for murder in the current sitting of the high court.

A twelve-member jury on Tuesday came back with a guilty verdict against Lennie Ross of Concord, St. John's in connection with the death of Allister Belfon of La. Borie, St George's.

The case for the prosecution was led by Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), Christopher Nelson who set out from the onset to prove that the killing, which took place at Concord, was intentional and deliberate.

The court was told that Belfon went to the home of the accused on Saturday, August 19, 2003 and told him the aunt of his children was being raped by 25 men in La Borie and urged him to come and take away the children from the house.

Ross informed Belfon that he did not have any money and the deceased decided to pay his bus fare and take him to the house in La Borie. Both the deceased and accused took away the children from the house and brought them back to Concord. Belfon left the house but returned later in the night.

He was allowed into the house by Ross and went straight into the bed of the accused. He was asked by the accused to get off the bed. Belfon complied and went into the hall to sit on a chair. The Prosecution told the court that sometime during the night, Ross heard the voice of his daughter in his sleep. He got up and went towards the hall where he found Belfon lying down between the two rooms.

The Prosecution informed the court that the daughter told her father that Belfon touched her. The accused then told the deceased, "What you come here to do, to rape me children". Ross then began to beat Belfon with the leg from a broken chair and then a cutlass.

Attorney-at-law, Anslem Clouden who represented Ross sought to influence the jury on the grounds that the murder was justified because "the deceased had raped his daughter or was about to rape his daughter (Sherri-ann Belfon)". According to Clouden, "the position of the defense was that the killing was not intentional but provoked, and that the accused had a sudden lost of self control".

The lawyer sought to portray Belfon as someone who had committed incest with the daughter of his own sister. Clouden said it was this reason why Ross thought that Belfon was about to rape his daughter and it was for these reasons "the defense wants the charge of murder to reduce to manslaughter."

The prosecution contended that the killing was intentional and referred to the situation in which the murder accused was asking his daughter for his cutlass. The court was also told that while Ross was beating Belfon, he also dragged him into the room of his daughter and asked the children whether he should "cut his neck".

When they said no, the deceased is said to have asked Ross for help, and he replied, "Stay dey and dead". The Prosecution also told the court that the accused tried to cover-up the situation by telling his daughter "when the police come tell them that uncle Allister touched me".

Ross was described as "smart man" since he was going about the place telling everybody that he killed a man for touching his daughter. High Court judge, Justice Kenneth Benjamin set next Friday (November 11) for sentencing of the accused.