Patrick Nathaniel Leacock told police that when he jumped through a window at Zanaba Moore’s home on April 23, 2019, he was angry and went to “dread her up” about the lack of access to their daughter, among other things, but he had no intention of stabbing her.
However, a total of 24 stab wounds, including to the upper back, chest and arm, were found when a postmortem was conducted on the 39-year-old woman’s body.
Two of those stab wounds pierced Moore’s heart, another pierced her left lung, and her death was due to cardiac tamponade secondary to stab wounds to the chest.
Principal State Counsel Krystal Delaney disclosed those facts on Wednesday as the case continued before Madam Justice Pamela Beckles in the No. 5 Supreme Court.
On Monday, Leacock, alias ‘Pockets’ of Carmichael Tenantry, St George, pleaded guilty to non-capital murder.
The prosecutor disclosed to the court that the relationship between Leacock and Moore was “rocky” and the woman obtained a protection order against him in February of 2019. Leacock was ordered not to go to her house, to keep a distance of at least 100 yards away from her, and instructed not to hit, beat, choke or physically assault her.
However, on April 23, 2019, Moore’s 18-year-old son was at home sleeping when he was awoken by a commotion. When he went into the living room/kitchen area, he saw Leacock stabbing his mother. The former couple’s two-year-old daughter was at the table eating breakfast at the time.
The court heard that Leacock looked in the teen’s direction before fleeing. The boy threw two stones at his mother’s attacker who ran onto a nearby cart road.
During the investigation, Leacock declined to give a statement but told police he went to Moore’s house and jumped in through a window.
“That is when I saw her. She ran back in the kitchen and snatch up a knife, so I start stabbing she,” he said, explaining that the weapon he used was one he always had on him.
When asked why he had stabbed Moore, Leacock said it was because “she tells a lot of lies”.
“Let me tell you something, officer, to make it easy. She tell a lot of lies . . . . I give she a slap when she had the little case in February . . . so days after that, before I get charged, I asked she what she was doing with the case and thing. She tell me she going to just go court and get it dismissed,” the accused told police.
However, he said, when he got to the court, he realised Moore got a restraining order against him and “the court decide to put me on all kinds of programmes – anger management and a partnership for peace”.
“We got a little child together. I call to make arrangements to see the little girl . . . but it only happening when them feel like it suppose to happen . . . . The magistrate arrange that I see the child on a weekend and they ain’t really cooperating with me, that is the problem with the court.
“So I call all weekend and nobody ain’t answering the phone and it playing with my head [because] I can’t just walk ‘cross there and see the little girl. That is basically it,” he added.
Asked how many times he had stabbed Moore, Leacock said he did not know and explained that the night before the incident, he slept at a nearby horse stable because “I drink some rum with two fellas, smoke something and then went and lay down”.
He added that he was not certain whether the relationship between him and Moore had ended, and when asked if the woman had said it was, he replied: “In a sense. She tell me just to go to the programmes and get some help.”
Police then asked Leacock whether he had entered the house to stab Moore.
“No, I went to dread she up, to ask her everything – what going on with the case, what going on with the little girl, why I ain’t see her,” he said, adding that he stabbed Moore “because I was vex, felt betrayed and I was angry”.
He said he then ran through a cane ground and tossed the knife.
“I really didn’t want that knife on me anymore,” Leacock said.
He subsequently accompanied police to the area where he said the weapon was discarded but it was not found.
The matter continues on May 30. A pre-sentencing report, as well as psychiatric and psychological reports, have also been ordered in preparation for sentencing.
Leacock has ten previous convictions, including for unlawfully killing another woman in March 2004.
The state’s attorney put the court, Leacock and his lawyer Verla Depeiza on notice that the prosecution will be seeking a life sentence given the killer’s antecedents.
