Witness in murder case recalls message from fiance telling her he got shot

When Sharon Boyce’s fiance Jason Husbands told her to finish cooking the food he had started because he was going to do a job and “come right back”, she did not expect it would be the last time she would hear his voice.

However, the next contact she received from him was a text message saying he had been shot, before he died on a road next to his vehicle in Lamberts, St Lucy.

That was part of Boyce’s tearful testimony as she appeared as a state witness in the trial against Kason Kemar Edwards of Gays, St Peter, who is accused of her partner’s August 21, 2012 shooting death.

Appearing in the No. 2 Supreme Court, she told the 12-member jury that her fiance, who worked as an appliance technician at Courts, had left their Mount Brevitor, St Peter home, to do a job in Cave Hill, St Lucy in the afternoon on the mentioned date.

She recalled later in the day that a message had come through from Husbands’ phone: “I just get shoot. I feel like I going dead.”

Boyce said she sent several messages in response as her phone had no credit to call, but while they were delivered, none was read.

She then got into contact with Husbands’ father who went to the police station and then to Lamberts. However, she did not go to the scene.

“I couldn’t,” she explained. “He was dead.”

It was two years later, on June 21, 2014, that Boyce was called to the Speightstown Police Station to identify a red toolbox that allegedly belonged to her late fiance. She had bought it the year before he died to replace an old one.

Boyce stated that most of the tools were missing from the toolbox but she was able to identify the items as belonging to Husbands.

She said the accused was present at the time and she recalled him saying, “That is the toolbox I took from the man I shoot in Lamberts, and I am sorry for what I put you through, lady.”

During his cross-examination, Edwards’ attorney, Marlon Gordon, asked Boyce whether she had told the police that the toolbox looked similar to the one she bought for Husbands.

“I cannot recall, Sir,” she responded. This was also her reply when asked if there were similar toolboxes for sale at the store the day she purchased it.

Other witnesses, Evelyn Hinds, Eversley Wharton and Anwar Springer, told the court that on the day of the incident, they had seen stones on the Lamberts road on which Husbands was killed.

Wharton told the court that when he and Hinds came across the rocks earlier that evening, they had both gotten out and thrown them into the gully before getting back in Hinds’ vehicle and going to the police station to report what happened.

Springer, who was in the area after 3 p.m. as a passenger in a motor vehicle, said he saw a van in the road with a man lying next to it, and they couldn’t pass. He said they turned around and were met by a police officer.

Another witness, Jason Johnson, testified that on his way home with relatives in his car, they came across the van. He approached it on foot and could hear the engine running. He said he saw a man lying on the ground and thought there had been an accident but he did not get close. Johnson called the police to report the incident and went home, but later walked back to the scene where he saw other people.

According to Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Alliston Seale SC, it is the prosecution’s case that when Husbands was on his way home, he came across the rocks in the road, and when he got out of his vehicle to move them, he was fatally shot by Edwards.

Forensic scientist Marsha Skeete and family medicine expert Dr Jasmine Crump also gave evidence.

The trial continues on Tuesday.