- plans to go to police tomorrow
The mother of escaped high-profile prisoner and multiple murder accused, Jermaine ‘Skinny’ Charles, has denied any knowledge of the whereabouts of her son, stating that while she always tried to attend court on the days her son made appearances, she was not at the court on the day he escaped, contrary to what the police claimed.
The woman said she had heard in media reports that the police wanted her and her 16-year-old daughter for questioning and she planned to go to the police station tomorrow. She insisted that she was at work when her son’s case was called on Wednesday last, and later met her daughter at the Camp Street prison where she was waiting for her son to return from court as she had taken food for him.
The woman, who preferred that her name not be mentioned, visited Stabroek News and expressed her frustration at the turn of events. She said her son was not the type of person who would make contact with her following what he did since he knew her temperament very well.
“He wouldn’t dare call me, because he know how I stay and this whole thing is stressful and is frustrating me. But I don’t know nothing about his plan to get away because it is not something I would support. I don’t know how and where the police got information that me and my daughter was at the court on that day. We were not there,” the distraught woman declared.
Recounting the events of that day, the woman told this newspaper that she was at work when she received a call from her daughter who said she was heading to the Camp Street prison to await her brother’s return and would take her little brother with her.
“It was 2:18 because my phone record the time. I was still at work and she call and I tell she alright and she tell me she will carry she small brother and so I tell she good and that I will meet them there. After work I went down there and we were standing waiting for the van that does bring them to come in,” the woman recounted. She could not remember the exact time that she reached her children at the prison.
She said she, her daughter and her son stood there for some time before they saw the vehicle arrive. Usually ‘Skinny’ would call out to them once he saw them, but she heard nothing when the vehicle passed, she said, but did not worry since she did not rule out the possibility that he might have arrived in an earlier batch.
The woman said her daughter had proceeded to the prison gate even though she told the girl to hold on a bit. “Then I see she coming back and I turn and I tell she ‘you see they mussy not ready’ and so we still stand up outside the prison,” she said.
The woman said that a few moments later, a prison officer called her to the prison entrance. “He ask me if I is not ‘Skinny’ mother and so I tell he yes and that is when he tell me that ‘Skinny’ getaway. I stand up there and is like I nearly tumble down because I couldn’t believe it. We just stand up stiff and I ask myself is how this boy gon do this to me because is sheer frustration for me and this whole thing already been stressing the entire family out,” she said.
The woman said he had no choice but to return to her Brutus Street home where she found her padlock and staple removed from her door. She said she subsequently heard that the police were looking for her and her daughter.
“But we did not move out or abandon our home. My daughter had left home to go to Camp Street and I was at work, Nobody ain’t move out,” she said.
‘I don’t know’
The mother of four, Jermaine ‘Skinny’ Charles being her eldest, told this newspaper she brought up all her children on her own and her son had displayed wayward tendencies from an early age. She said he was not a disrespectful child but had become hard to control at one time after he took up gambling.
She said Jermaine attended St Ann’s Primary in Agricola and after he wrote ‘Common Entrance’, he was awarded a place at Kingston Community High School. He dropped out at third form.
She didn’t give a clear reason for his dropping out but said her son started to gamble with older boys in the community and spent extremely long hours in a gambling den in the village.
“Many time I used to have to go and call him out from the gamble house and it used to be he and a wild set of boys. One time I get so fed up that I call the police and I make them lock him up to teach him an example, because it’s this type of behaviour displaying today that I was trying to avoid,” the woman said.
She also recounted that her son had taken on odd jobs, but the other older boys in the community used to always tease him telling him, “Boy why you wuking for them lil bit money? Boy is wuh you deh pun?”
Asked about the possibility of her son being involved in the high-profile killings for which he has been charged, the woman said, “I don’t know. I really don’t know. I heard the talk about him being part of a gang too. But I really don’t know.”
She added that from an early age when she started to voice her disapproval of his gambling habit, “‘Skinny’ had moved out from me long and stopped at different friends” and at times she hardy saw him.
“He moved out and sometimes if I coming home from work and walking in the street and he see me coming he would run away because he used to call me ‘ rowy’ ‘cause he say I always rowing,” she recounted.
The woman recounted too days when her son was still at school and he would go to collect her at the road head to accompany her home late at nights. “Sometimes I used to have to work double hours and Jermaine wouldn’t know that I ain’t coming home and he would stay out there waiting late. When I come home some mornings, the neighbours would tell me that he was waiting for me long and them bigger boys giving he weed fuh smoke,” she said.
When the wanted bulletin was issued for ‘Skinny’ following the slaying of former agriculture minister Satyadeow Sawh, his siblings and his security guard, the woman said, her son had long moved out and she had absolutely no communication with him. However, since he has been a prisoner, she said, she tried to ensure that he received meals, which she, her daughter or other relatives would take.
She said she was held twice by police before, for questioning in connection with her son’s involvement in criminal activities. She insisted that she knew nothing of his whereabouts and hoped he would turn himself in.
She said she has resorted to leaving everything in the hands of God, since she was a hard-working mother and if the police were to question people in the community, “if people want talk they would hear that I always working because I bringing up my children without a father and it’s not easy.”
She said she hoped good sense would prevail, as she would make herself available to the police because she had nothing to hide.
“This whole thing is frustrating and it has been stressful for my family and I’m just hoping that everything just come to an end,” she said.
Jermaine ‘Skinny’ Charles escaped from the lock-ups on Wednesday afternoon following a court appearance at the Sparendaam Magistrate’s court. The police have since acknowledged negligence and admitted that the prisoner had a three-hour lead before a manhunt was launched for him.
Charles made good his escape through a loosened floorboard in the lockups, which had been there for some time but never repaired even though the station sergeant was aware of it. Commissioner of Police (ag) Henry Greene has said that serious action, including interdiction from duty would face those officers found guilty of negligence.
There has been no word on the whereabouts of Charles. The police have said that resources have been dedicated to chasing after him.
Charles has been charged along with Dwight Da Silva, Quincy Evans, Terrence John, Delwayne Carrington and a boy who is now 15 years old, with a number of other murders.
He was charged along with Da Silva with the murder of Barbot Paul, the Kaneville, East Bank Demerara businessman who was shot and killed outside his home on August 6. Charles is also accused of killing Devon Charles of Agricola on June 23; Guilford Henry on June 26, 2005 and 12-year-old Kevin Browne on March 18, 2006. He shares the Browne murder charge with Dego France. Charles is also charged with Da Silva and Evans with being part of a group of men who allegedly murdered five Kaieteur News pressmen – Chetram Persaud, Eion Wegman, Richard Stewart, Mark Maikoo and Shazam Mohamed in August 2006.
It is also alleged that they killed Wordsworth Grey on August 8. The 15-year-old boy, who was 13 years old then, was also charged with that murder. Charles was then charged with the murders of Sawh, Rajpat Sawh, Phulmattie Persaud and Curtis Robinson on April 22 at La Bonne Intention (LBI) East Coast Demerara. David Leander, called ‘Biscuit’, was also charged separately with the LBI slayings.
Some time ago, in reference to the young criminals coming out of Buxton, I bemoaned the absence of the patriarchal influence or nuclear family structure.
One blogger felt there was no correlation and that I was postulating rum shop pyschology, since there are white collar criminals who steal.
That blogger missed two points:
1. These young men are not accused of simple larceny, but spiral downward into gruesome crimes.
2. White collar criminals steal out of greed, perhaps kleptomania, whereas these young men rob and kill out of the perception of survival.
Single parent households, especially those in which there is only a mother struggling to sustain her family, are very likely to undergo stress which spawns troubled youth.
This seems to have been the case with this young man. The absence of the father figure influenced him to seek his manhood in the nearest avenue possible: the gambling den with its perverts and dissolutes. Juxtaposed with that is the lure of fast, dishonest money, which has become the bane of all of Guyana (and the world, of course) resulting in moral decay and frightful, revolting crime.
Skinny and the other black and east indian delinquents evolve from a system which is deficient in:
1. Adequately supporting single parent mothers/ fathers.
2. Mandating compulsory school attendance. Less than 97% attendance should be cause for legal proceedings against the defaulter and family.
3. Instructing a fixed school leaving age. When students at all ages are allowed to exit school, particularly with the consent (includes omission to act) of parent/s, then there is always the possibility of dereliction.
4. Providing a counselling program throughout all schools, so that there is a reference point which soberly addresses the frustrations of at- risk children. The antiquated methodology of chalk and talk has to change to accommodate a generation blighted by numerous social, political and economic ills.
5. Enacting and implementing social and economic avenues necessary for the youth vulnerable to an already existing social structure which celebrates laziness, profligacy and dishonest survival.
May God be with us.
Good comment. Good sugggestions for solutions. There is need for much more, it needs a lot done NOW. It has to start with the funds being allocated for the social services to put the system in place to deal with these situations. Maybe a GPF unit for enforcement.
Seeing that because the single parent spends too much time away from the home (working for money to live) it should also include making the absent parents contribute financially to the children’s upbringing so as to allow the child raising parent room to be fully aware of what the child is doing.
There are good models in other countries to copy from but most important there has to be the will of the powers that be to get this done. Failing this – it’s just more writings on paper!!!
Very Well Said Popeoplefedup You’ve Expressed Yourself In A More Diplomatic Way Than The First Time When You Addressed The Issue, But In My Opinion You Hit The Nail Right On The Head, The Whole Suituation Is Very Sad And Guyana Is Preparing to Host Carifesta-X Soon , And The Forces Claim They Got Fineman And His men Covered And Yet Two Of The men Were Shot 90 Miles Away From The Cordon , And If That Ain,t Bad Enough Now We Have To Find Out That A Member Of The Same Fineman Gang Has Escaped Or Was Freed From Police Custody And Was Heard Saying That He Had Some Kind Of Unfinished Business, Well Lord Have Mercy On All The Innocent Citizens That Are Now At Risk, WHEN WILL IT END OR WILL IT EVER ?
Popeoplefedup,that should be “African and East Indian delinquents” Both being black,but getting back to the subject,I think that when we had the National Service parents did not have these problems,and I agree with your suggestions something needs to be done.My sympathy goes out to that poor mother,I cannot begin to imagine what she must be going through or what she is feeling,but she has to stay strong for her other children.
a single struggling mother, sure if skinny had a father figure he would have still been in school.
black men are failing their children.
Isn’t that the truth. Look at Barack Obama. His looser father left him when he was only two years old. Thank God his Mother and Grandparents did not bow down to racism and give him up for adoption. I once dated a girl who’s mother was white and father was black. They both give her up because society “did not approve”.
Black fathers and all fathers should owe up to their responsibility and raise their children until they can make smart and logical decisions on their own. They should also step in when there’s a fatherly void to be filled.
Child neglect should be a crime punishable at the highest extent of the law, after all is that not the main cause of juvenile deliquency?
If “Skinny’s” mom knows something then she should tell. I don’t know the woman so I withold judgement.
I have reasons to believe the woman’s story,but i dont think ppl does get away to turn themselves back in.
All of the Guyana Police Force needs re-training. They are too dam complacent. Why did they not surround the camp at christmas falls? Now look at the mess they are in. Why did they not identify themselves to citizens when the approach them? If you pull over a vehicle and you cannot see the occupants, them have them exit the vehicle without walking up to get shot.
They should solicit some sophisticated help from the US in the form of satelite survelance and night vision. Those criminals are on the run so they are leaving tracks.
unfortunately we encourage a lot of things in Guyana society these days that would’ve been unheard of sometime ago
i find it interesting that all these ‘criminals’ were either born or came of age after 1991
go figure
Yes, it’s very interesting that they were born or became of age after 1991.
Hmmm, one needs to take stock of Guyana’s leaders.
just b strong mom
i must say that im very sorry to know what this poor woman is going through.
however i truly believe that the way forward for convicted youths is to organise a a guidance counsel body, so that when a young person is guilty of any crime this body can show our youths the importance of life, rather than beat the people children when they are being convicted i truly believe that beating these children would only lead then down the wrong path and this is what the guyana government is lacking. i also believe its imperative for at least the head of every station to dialogue with these young men so that they would know the reason for their actions and address it immediately in a professional manner and i repeat again in a professional manner. so that this beautiful land of ours can be a better place.
MAY GOD BE WITH US.
No baby is born a criminal. That behavior is learnt from…
Babies are like a new computer without any software.
IT MUST BE PROGRAMMED WITH THE CORRECT PROGRAM TO FUNCTION ACCORDINGLY.
FATHERS, IT’S TIME TO MAN-UP!
IT TAKES A VILLAGE TO RAISE A CHILD…Hillary Clinton.
All in favor of revoking Jagdeo’s passport so he can stay in Guyana and take care of his Guyanese people as he was elected to do… reply to this.
I think this is one Father figure we can really do without – let him go! The sooner the better. I grew up with grand-parents in Guyana and have turned out pretty okay. It is simply that today’s cultures influence the youngsters who have no sense of independence to think for themselves. They want a quick and easy life and believe a BMW or AK-47 is a worthwhile status symbol. The acquisition of assets without expending a single bead of perspiration is their way of life. Bring back National Service and let them develop a sense of duty. In prison let them cultivate the food they need to eat and earn their keep. The breakdown in law and order and the glamorization of violence has not helped. The youth have nothing to do and nothing to look forward to. We have lots of land in Guyana – the government needs to invest and let them farm (fish, crops, etc) and not just feed Guyana but farm to export and bring in the much needed foreign exchange. We need ALL Father figures to take some degree of responsibility but it is a collective effort.
jeremy 339 i am soo in favour let him see what it feels like with no escaping from the violence his regime created!!
Lord Know!! I had not a father figure in my life. He was alive, but it was like he was dead. He never paid his children no mind. But I did not turn out to be a criminal. MY mother stuck it out & raised us to be men & women. By herself put 3 out 5 children thru university. She used to cry, beg & plead with us to do the right things in life. I can only imagine what this mother was going thru. I have seen my mother thru it.
For me it was frustrating, like there would never be an end in sight. Today I am a family man, well educated working for one of the biggest firms. People look up to me. I look back at those days & that is motivation enough to keep me on the right path.
Hats off to you skinny mother & all those strong minded single parent women, do not know your name.
One of the biggest mistakes made by us is that education is not taken seriously. That is where it all starts. No ifs, buts or maybes. Once one have that, then comes the money, women of course & the fame.
EDUCATION IS THE KEY. FEED THE BABIES THAT FROM CONCEPTION STAGES.
Obviously this is a dedicated mother…reminds me of my mother…hope things work out for the best. :D