On May 10, 2016, while passing through the St Leonard’s Church’s cemetery, Eddisa Deon Mitchell listened to his brother Chris Avian Amal Lord’s plan to rob businessman Colin Forde of his jewelry.
However during the execution of the plan at Colin’s Sports Bar and Lounge on Baxter’s Road, the City, the robbery turned deadly when Mitchell, who claimed he “got frighten,” shot Forde three times during the crime.
“I don’t think there is much that I could say to really condone taking someone else’s life but at the end of the day in my heart I feel truly sorry for actually taking somebody’s family away from them.
“I feel bad to know that I put myself in this position which is what my mother did never want to see me in this sort of position. She did always trying to keep me away from this type of lifestyle but I still end up finding myself in it through certain circumstances,” Mitchell, of 2nd Avenue, Thomas Gap, President Kennedy Drive, St Michael said as he addressed the court today during a Zoom hearing.
The convicted manslayer, who is a first time offender, told Justice Randall Worrell that he hoped that the deceased man’s family and by extension society would forgive him at some point.
“If it is the deceased’s family could at least put it in their heart to forgive me, whenever the court sees fit I willing to take it sir. At the end of the day I just hope that society will give me a chance, that when I does try to fit back in that they won’t judge me so harshly and actually give me a chance to actually prove that I could be a better person out there. That’s the most I could say for now.”
Mitchell made the comments after Senior Crown Counsel Olivia Davis detailed his part in the criminal enterprise that resulted in Forde’s death.
In a statement to police, the prosecutor told the No. 2 Supreme Court, Mitchell said he was at home around 7 p.m. prior to the deadly shooting when his brother Lord arrived and asked to speak with him. After having that conversation and being told to bring a change of clothes they left.
“We leave from home and walk through St Leonard’s cemetery. We stopped and that’s when he told me he plan to rob Colin in Baxter’s Road. He showed me a silver spin barrel gun and told me he had one for me too. We walked through the Orleans till we get to Colin’s place and stop where there had some minibuses,” he said in the statement.
There they would change clothes, donned their masks and his brother would hand him the gun.
“He told me he was going to grab Colin’s two chains from around his neck and told me to run out behind him as protection with the gun, he also had one,” Mitchell revealed.
They approached Forde who was sitting in a chair next to another man.
“My brother snatch at the chains that Colin was wearing but failed at the first attempt. Colin got up and struggled with my brother. I got frightened and run up to Colin and point the gun at him and I squeeze the trigger about three times. While it happen my brother was holding the chains, I saw Colin fall to the ground and the chains pop. After I see him fall I got frighten cause I shot him. So I run back behind Colin’s place. My brother also followed me. We run along the road, when we was running my brother beat a shot in the air as a warning shot so no one would come behind us.”
The two then made their escape. He added that five days later “my brother send $100 for me”.
Mitchell, who was 20 years old at the time, was apprehended on June 4, 2016.
He was represented by attorney-at-law Safiya Moore and returns before Justice Worrell on Thursday, August 27.
Mitchell’s brother Lord, like him, previously pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter. Lord is now serving a sentence for the crime.
