‘I should have stayed in the US’ – Jamaican regrets going home

(Jamaica Star) In 2015 when Carl Williams returned to Jamaica after spending 30 years of his life in the United States of America, his plans were to invest in his country and relax after escaping the fast-paced first-world country.

However, five years later, Williams has lived to regret his choices, as his experience thus far is the complete opposite of what he had envisioned.

Two years after his return, Williams was allegedly robbed of his valuables, after thieves broke into his house in Prospect, St Thomas. A month after the robbery, he was charged with assaulting a 16-year-old, who alleged that Williams held him by the neck and slammed his head into a motor vehicle.

“I should have stayed in the US or go to some other island but I chose to come here, the place that we were born. But I didn’t expect all of this, to be dragged through the mud,” Williams told THE STAR. “I had reached the stage where I said I had enough of being in the US and I was a businessman there so I was comfortable money-wise to return home.”

Williams was, however, freed of the charges on January 12 in the Yallahs Parish Court, as the elements of the offences could not be proven. Under cross-examination from Williams’ lawyers, Queen’s Counsel Peter Champagnie and Richard Lynch, the investigating officer said he did not see any evidence to suggest that the complainant was beaten.

Following the revelation in the Yallahs Parish Court, the defence lawyers made a no-case submission that the elements of the offences were not proven, and that there were contradictions in the prosecution’s case. Parish judge Lushana Jackson upheld the submissions and freed Williams.

Reflecting on his life over the past months, the 49-year-old said that he is terrified and did not expect his own people to betray him.

“I came back retired and thought I was going to enjoy the island, but that is not the way it is. I feel disappointed with my own people. I have to say that and now I just want to leave,” he said.

Williams said that he had invested most of his savings into a business, but all that has gone downhill.

“When I used to watch the news I see that people were short on jobs, so me and my wife decide to buy some land, a few tractors and went into farming. We employed a few persons from in the area as well, just in the name of building back my country because I came from nothing so I wanted to give back,” said Williams. “I had to close down the farm because of everything that was happening and I just feel sad every day because I feel like I don’t know what I did to my life.”

Williams said that he still feels scared for his life even though he won the case.

“Nobody can be trusted and when I look at how the system treated me, I have to worry,” he said.

He added: “I want to try and get out of here because it is not the Jamaica I was hoping to return to, that fun place where we live as one and love our neighbours.”