Man charged for brutal slaying of child’s mother

THE YEAR 2020 is only in its third month, but as of Tuesday, March 10, the Serious Offences Court has seen two men come before it charged with killing a female partner.

Mickeisha Gumbs

Vandyke ‘Dez’ King appeared just three days after he is alleged to have used a knife to murder 26-year-old Mickeisha Gumbs of Park Hill.

The 35-year-old security guard was charged that he, with malice aforethought, caused the death of Gumbs, by stabbing and cutting her throat with a knife.

King, who will be legally represented by attorney Ronald Marks, is slated to return on June 15 for the beginning of his preliminary inquiry investigating the evidence in the matter.

During the case’s progression through the court system, King will be held in custody, as bail is not open to him. The accused man, escorted by detectives, was taken away swiftly, wiping his eyes with a yellow rag as he went. The murder of Gumbs, who was in a five-year relationship with King, has left her three young daughters without their mother.

According to Gumbs’ sister, Joseth Gumbs, as reported in the SEARCHLIGHT Midweek online edition, the couple did not live together.

On the said afternoon, at 4:30 p.m., Mickeisha was said to have been ambushed on her way home from her boyfriend’s mother’s house. She had picked up her one-year-old daughter, and the infant was in her arms at the time she was stabbed. Another of Mickeisha’s daughters also witnessed the crime.

Gumbs’ death is the fourth killing recorded for the year,but the second allegedly related to domestic violence.

MURDER VICTIM Mickeisha’ Gumbs’ brother Japheth Gumbs (left) and her sister Joseth Gumbs show SEARCHLIGHT the area where their sister died. One-year-old Vanique, being held by Joseth, said “mommy” as she looked on.

Last weekend’s killing was preceded by the January 30 gunning down of Cuban-born nurse Arianna Taylor on the compound of the St Martin’s Secondary School. The crime happened in the afternoon, when Taylor went to pick her son up from the school. Her husband Mitchell ‘Mitch’ Israel, and father of her two sons, has been charged with her murder. He will next appear in court on May 18.