(Trinidad Express) A man charged with murder following the torture, beating and stabbing of alleged purse thief Neil Hamilton pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter in court yesterday.
Accused Simon Ovid’s plea to the Boxing Day 2002 killing was accepted by the prosecution.
State attorney Tricia Hudlin-Cooper told the court at around 12.15 a.m that day, Ovid and another person attended a party at Fanny Village, Point Fortin.
They said they were going to “put a cutlass on Roll It (Hamilton’s nickname) tonight” because he had allegedly stolen a purse belonging to the other man’s mother.
Hamilton was taken to a house where he was seen with blood on his shoulder and face.
“In the presence of the prisoner (Ovid), the other person picked up a knife and stabbed the deceased,” Hudlin-Cooper said. Hamilton, who was in a pair of short pants, bareback and barefooted, was taken to the pavilion of Fanny Village Recreation Ground.
The other man beat him with a three-foot long piece of wood while Ovid kicked him.
Hamilton was told by the other man: “You thief meh mother purse and she cry too, so you have to cry.”
A screaming Hamilton was beaten for an hour while crying and asking for the beating to end. Hamilton ran from the pavilion but his escape was short-lived as he collided with a wire fence and fell.
He was taken back to the pavilion by the men and the beating continued.
At around 3 a.m., the other man told Ovid that he had to go and have sex. But he still continued to beat Hamilton, who was later taken by both men for a sea bath and then dragged home. Later, at Hamilton’s house, a man called out to him (Hamilton). When he got no response, he pushed the door to see Hamilton lying on a mattress, seemingly dead.
The police were contacted, Hudlin-Cooper said. A post-mortem found that Hamilton died of multiple blows to his body as a result of blunt and sharp trauma caused by a knife, fist, foot or piece of wood. Ovid was charged by Corporal Straiker.
The matter is being heard before Justice Mark Mohammed in the San Fernando First Criminal Court.
Ovid is being represented by attorney Rekha Ramjit and he is expected to be sentenced on June 3.
