Something came over me, says alleged wife killer

British Virgin Islands (BVI) Director of Public Prosecutions Kim Hollis has told the court that, during a police interview, Lennox Da Silva ‘clearly admitted’ to cutting his Jamaican wife’s throat on the ill-fated night of Saturday, June 10, 2017.

The 52-year-old native of St Vincent and the Grenadines appeared before senior magistrate Tamia Richards Tuesday on a murder charge. He was not made to plead in relation to the offence.

Da Silva, who expressed remorse in court, was denied bail.

“I very sorry for what happen to me… Please pray for me, because sometimes things happen that we don’t want to happen,” the offender told senior magistrate Richards, adding that the magistrate knows him as a decent person.

The prosecution told the court that neighbours called police to the scene of the murder at the couple’s residence around 8:30 p.m. last week Saturday.

The couple lived at Tiger Apartments in Greenland, East End, BVI, with two children – an 11-year-old boy and a four-year-old girl.

Law enforcers met the accused man outside the entrance of the said apartment, where neighbours had blocked him from leaving the scene, the court heard.

The prosecution further stated that, when police went to the location, the lifeless body of 27-year-old Sherika Nelson-Da Silva was seen lying on the floor behind the alleged murderer, who later was taken into custody.

During an interview with police, the accused allegedly claimed that his wife had come home in the night and was packing her belongings to leave him.

The husband reportedly told police that he accused his wife of cheating, and even admitted to following her on the road to watch her movements earlier on the date of the murder.

The court heard that the husband claimed he went over the proverbial edge when his wife reportedly told him: “I don’t know why the gunman never kill you… You give me trouble.”

A gunman had shot the husband multiple times when he went to Jamaica to visit the woman who is now dead. They were not married at the time.

The shooting incident happened at the woman’s family house in the Old Pasley area of Palmers Cross, Clarendon, Jamaica. Jamaican police had said the incident was a robbery, adding that the male victim had visited the island to get married.

When Da Silva returned to the BVI, he told BVI News Online that he was grateful to be alive.

“God is who saved me. [It] is he who I could talk to and prevail. I make sure I present myself in church here, which I supposed to be – to give God thanks for sparing my life,” he said in late April 2014.

Meanwhile, the court heard Tuesday that after the murder, the husband told police that he didn’t remember reaching for the knife used in the incident, but he recalls seeing the blood afterwards.

It is further alleged that he told police he stabbed his wife from behind, before he grabbed her hair, and cut her throat.

“Tonight something just came over me,” the husband reportedly told law enforcers.

The prosecution said the two children witnessed the murder.

The husband, whom the prosecution described as a man of ‘good character’, is scheduled to return to court on July 12.

BVI News Online