65-year-old man confesses to fracturing wife’s skull

On September 11, Madam Justice Pamela Beckles will hear sentencing submissions regarding the case of a 65-year-old man who confessed to wounding his wife, leaving her with a fractured skull.

Appearing in the No. 5 Supreme Court recently, Keith Eric Eversley, of Oak Leaf Villa, Mangrove Plantation, St Philip, pleaded not guilty to causing serious bodily harm to Oshin Williams with intent to maim, disfigure or disable her on November 11, 2021. However, he admitted to the lesser charge of unlawfully and maliciously wounding her.

Outlining the facts, Senior State Counsel Kevin Forde said that Eversley met then 27-year-old Williams, a Jamaican national, in 2019 and the two were married the following year. However, she went back to her home country without the marriage being consummated.

She returned to Barbados in October 2021, and the marriage was still not consummated, leading to frequent arguments, and Eversley also accused Williams of infidelity.

On the night of the incident, she was in bed sleeping when Eversley began beating her about the head and hands with a piece of metal. She was diagnosed with having a fractured skull with intracerebral haemorrhage, and spent eight days at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

In his interview with the police, the now-convicted man denied that the argument was about sex. He stated that she had told him she was leaving because she had no clients and could not afford to pay for the space he had rented for her salon, and she had asked him for money.

“This was a whole money issue, and I told her I don’t have it because I have some further expenses for the guest house she was staying at and the salon,” Eversley told police.

Disagreeing with some of the facts presented, defence attorney Rasheed Belgrave said during the time Williams was overseas, his client was using his pension to send money to help her purchase water and pay utility bills.

He stated that upon her return to Barbados, there was “excuse after excuse”, and she would disappear and go by friends for hours and return home late.

Belgrave said his client rejected the claim that Williams had been sleeping when he struck her.

“She wanted $2 000 at the point in time, but my client was unable to give her. So when this happened, everything broke down communication-wise. She would not answer his calls. So it was a built-up frustration to the point where Mr Eversley confronted her and there was an argument, and she was the person who actually initiated the scuffle. It just ended up with my client having the upper hand and striking her,” he stated, adding that it was not premeditated.

The attorney added, “What I would say is that he realised he was being used for financial gain . . . and ultimately that led to the quarrel between them.”