Adrian Michael Black says he was provoked and was defending himself when he stabbed 60-year-old Victor Husbands to death on June 29, 2020.
“He tell me I is a madman, he gine beat me. He tek up my fanta, starting coming in my face [saying], ‘I gine beat ya, I gine beat ya’. He say ya want to fight and start coming in my face and bare golf balls was coming in my face and ting. I drew my knife and started jucking him up. I didn’t mean for that but that’s how it turn out, that’s the truth.
“He mek me feel hurt. A man that I never do nothing, tell nothing, been respectful to all my life, take it upon himself to interfere with me. I defend myself in my own right,” the Thompson Gap, Codrington Hall, St Michael resident told police when he was interviewed regarding the incident.
The details of the interview were revealed before the No. 5 Supreme Court on Monday as Principal Crown Counsel Kyrstal Delaney outlined the facts before Madam Justice Pamela Beckles.
The prosecutor told the court that Black was diagnosed with Bipolar disorder from the age of 17. He was an outpatient at the Psychiatric Hospital and visited the hospital every two weeks for medication.
The deceased was known to many as Kimble and had no fixed place of abode. His sister said while he did not have any known sickness she sensed something was wrong given his behaviour a month prior to his death.
On the date of the incident, Black was at the residence of a neighbour around 10 p.m. where several other men had also gathered. Kimble showed up and asked for another man who was not present. According to the evidence given to police, he was “ranting” about cassettes that he had given to the man.
Husbands then asked for a cigarette. The item was on the veranda and belonged to Black. After he was given the item he started telling Black about his mental health condition, that he was a mental patient and depended on medication. He also insulted Black on his religion, physical appearance, going as far as calling him a pig and threatening to beat him. He also falsely accused the man of beating his mother but Black ignored him.
People present intervened but Husbands continued his behaviour, relentlessly insulting Black who, although he did not respond, began to get upset and started to pace.
Delaney said Black then left the area and went home and returned shortly after with a clear bag containing Fanta, which he placed on the wall.
Eventually Husbands said he was leaving and as he was walking by he asked Black if he had weed in his hand. He told Black to give him something to smoke or he would beat him and take it away.
He then suddenly pushed his hand in the bag and took out some of what was inside and snatched the wrapper which was in Black’s hand, then called him “soft ass”.
However, as he walked away the accused grabbed him and started making stabbing motions about Husbands’ body with a wooden handle knife.
An ambulance was summoned and arrived at the scene around 11:35 p.m. but a check revealed no signs of life. Husbands was subsequently pronounced dead.
At his house Black’s mother woke up to his pacing. When she asked him what happened he reportedly told her that he was at a friend’s house when Kimble interfered with him, kept provoking him. He told her he had stabbed Husbands in the neck and ‘he bleed out’.
He was arrested the following morning as his mother was preparing to take him to the police station.
During his interview with lawmen Black told police that “I sorry for what I do.”
The prosecutor said that a post mortem was conducted on Husbands and found that he had sustained 15 stab wounds to the body namely left arm, fingers, chest, neck, jaw, and upper back. One of these wounds, according to the doctor who performed the assessment, was to the heart causing massive hemorrhage. Cause of death was given as hemorrhage secondary to multiple stab wounds.
Delaney stated that the prosecution had accepted Black’s plea of not guilty to murder but guilty of manslaughter on the basis of “provocation”.
She explained that the deceased “relentlessly insulted” Black that night, on his mental health, religion, physical appearance, threatened to beat him and challenged him to fight. This verbal abuse she said went on for a length of time according to the evidence given.
“In the opinion of the state, the verbal abuse by the deceased was such that it would cause a reasonable person imbued with the characteristics of the accused to lose self-control. It is therefore on this basis that the state accepts the plea of guilty to manslaughter,” she told the court.
Black, who is presented by attorney-at-law Faith Greaves, will reappear before Justice Beckles on May 25. That is also when the prosecution and defence will make submissions on sentencing. A pre-sentencing report and a psychiatric report as well as a report on the time he has spent on remand have been requested in preparation for sentencing.
