Former death row inmate collapses, dies

A former murder convict who was part of the infamous prison break in 1991 with the notorious Winston Hall (deceased) is dead.

Fifty-six-year-old Denzil Orlando Roberts of Cave Road, Tichbourne, St Michael reportedly collapsed while at Sky Mall, Haggatt Hall this morning.

Police Public Relations Officer Acting Inspector Rodney Inniss confirmed it was the same Roberts and said he was pronounced dead on arrival at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital at around 11.05 a.m.

Roberts who had avoided execution in the 1990s, walked out of Dodds Prison a free man back in June 2017 after more than three decades in jail.

He came to public notoriety in 1991 when he broke out of death row at Glendairy Prison along with convicted murderers Hall, David Oliver and Peter Bradshaw.

Roberts’ death sentence was reduced to life and then remitted by the local Privy Council.

Local criminologist and author Kim Ramsay profiled Roberts in her 2018 book Barbados’ Most Wanted.

That publication exposes the atmosphere and nature of the Barbadian criminal of yesteryear and outlines the profiles of 11 of this country’s’ most notorious criminals and the lives they lived.

Ramsay said on local radio today she had met Roberts in prison and he was also writing his own book about his life and had indicated he wanted to turn around his life and become an agent for change.