Dominican man to be sentenced for ‘Bajan friend’s’ bizarre murder a decade ago

ROSEAU – A Dominica High Court judge will on June 21 sentence Sherman Webb who pleaded guilty to murdering a 23-year-old Barbadian University of the West Indies student more than 10 years ago in a “bizarre” case that involved satanic ritual and a “cold, callous, brutal” slaying.

As the pre-sentencing phase began, Justice Wynante Adrien-Roberts ordered a social inquiry report and a psychiatric report on or before June 1, whilst the state and defence lawyers are to file their submissions on or before June 15

On Tuesday, Webb, of Kings Hill, just east of the capital, who was convicted in 2012 for the murder of Corey Rohan Poleon and later granted a retrial by the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (ECSC) confessed to killing his “Bajan friend”.

During a High Court sitting, the prosecution withdrew its earlier indictment of manslaughter and the charge was reread to Webb.

The court had heard that between August 31, 2009, and March 18, 2010, in the east Roseau community of Elms Hall, Webb killed Poleon, who was visiting Webb in Dominica after the two met on the Internet.

Poleon’s family members reported him missing following his failure to return home to Barbados.

His remains were later found beneath the floorboards of a small wooden house in River Claire, Elms Hall, where Webb had taken Poleon and“chopped him on both sides of his neck” causing him to bleed to death.

Until Tuesday, Webb had maintained his innocence, claiming that Poleon came to visit him in August 2009 to conduct an “occult ceremony which involved the summoning of a demon” which would allow Poleon to receive his own guardian spirit.

He told the court during his 2012 trial that Poleon had returned to Dominica after an initial visit and two days after his arrival, they went up to a small house in Elms Hall to conduct the ceremony.

Webb said that during this ceremony, Poleon became frightened which caused him to “step out of the circle” causing a demon to possess him.

He said he chopped Poleon on the neck with a cutlass to force the demon to leave his body and later buried him under the wooden house where they had conducted the ritual after “banishing the spirits”.

Webb, in his final statements, said: “I do not agree that I killed Corey. He was a friend of mine.”

When remains were later discovered, samples unearthed by police were taken to Jamaica and Barbados for testing and the remains were confirmed to be Poleon’s.

Detectives reportedly found several items of paraphernalia related to some form of satanic ritual at Webb’s home.

On June 22, 2012, after an eight-day trial, a nine-member jury handed down a guilty verdict in the matter.

Two weeks later, July 20, 2012, Justice Bernie Stephenson Brooks sentenced Webb to life in prison.

Before sentencing, Justice Brooks labelled the facts of the case as “unusual and unfortunate and bizarre”.

She described Poleon’s killing as “cold, callous, brutal, calculated and heinous” and stated that the court needed to send a strong message to society that such acts would not be tolerated.

The sentence was later appealed in 2016 and the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court quashed Webb’s conviction and ordered a retrial.

Webb’s lawyer at the time, Peter Alleyne, had four grounds of appeal. He claimed Judge Brooks misdirected the jury when she failed to explain an accident in law; she failed to properly address the jury on the law governing self-defence; she failed to address the issue or defence of accident and was biased and prejudiced towards his client.

But the ECSC judges, dismissed his first ground of appeal, upheld the second and concluded that the trial judge gave directions in “a vacuum”.

Webb, who has been in custody for the past 10 years, is now represented by Kondwani Williams. (CMC/DNO)