Green Hill man to be sentenced for Chewitt’s murder

Tyson Spencer will learn his fate on November 23, when a Social Inquiry report is presented to the court.{{more}}

In the meantime, the Green Hill resident will remain at Her Majesty’s Prison, on a charge of manslaughter.

On Wednesday, at the High Court’s Criminal Assizes, Spencer, who was initially charged with the murder of Belair resident Clevedon “Junior” Chewitt, pleaded not guilty to murder and guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter.

Director of Public Prosecutions, Colin Williams said a guilty plea to manslaughter was acceptable, seeing that Spencer acknowledged culpability for the offence and that it was a single stab wound.

The court heard that a Carnival event was taking place at Heritage Square on June 25, 2011, which both men attended.

At about 1a.m., an incident occurred while the deceased, 26, a DVD vendor, was dancing in front of a bar.

The deceased bumped into Spencer, who took a knife from the right side of his pants and stabbed the deceased in the left side of his neck.

He died 10 minutes after he arrived at the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital.

In a police statement, Spencer said that he recognized the deceased from seeing him around town selling CDs.

“He come and war whine up pon the woman dem who ah been liming with. The daughter fo the woman ain’t war give this guy ah whine and he keep humbugging her…,” Spencer’s statement read.

Spencer further told police that after he saw that the girl did not want to dance with the deceased, he told him to leave the girl alone.

“He tell me ‘Boy, yuh can’t [expletive] around me.’ I say, ‘boy, Yuh is ah bullaman…’ He pull ah knife from de left side of he waist and show me. I walk away from him and he came back and harassing the girl again…,” the statement continued.

Spencer said he walked away and headed towards a speaker box. He said Chewitt continued harassing the women and he went to where they were and told Chewitt to leave the women alone.

“The man start to fire hand pon me, box and slap and them kinda thing. I then run back up on him and lash him back. I see like he meking ah move to tek the knife out he waist. Me ain’t allow him to tek the knife out he waist because me know he had de knife.”

Spencer stated that he had a fingernail clip in his pocket and that he fired a stab at the deceased. He said the fingernail clip had a “little knife” on it and that he had found it in Heritage Square that same night.

Spencer said he only fired a stab at Chewitt to keep him at bay and that he never meant to kill him.

“After the stabbing, I put the fingernail clip in me waist and when the Black Squad (Rapid Response Unit) men bring me down, it drop out me waist somewhere between Courts and Laynes … I tell the CID (Criminal Investigations Department) men where the knife drop. Ah carry them back and show them where de knife drop, but we didn’t find the knife…”

Attorney Ronald Marks represents Spencer.(KW)