BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – TWO individuals who were charged with murder and were ordered to undergo psychiatric evaluation to determine whether they can stand trial can now do so according to Consultant Psychiatrist, Sharon Halliday.
Halliday told the court yesterday Sep. 22 that Melvina Kelly of Saddlers Village and Jahdell Browne of Upper Monkey Hill are both fit to face the murder charges before them.
Kelly who is a 53-year-old grandmother was charged with the July 11, 2010 murder of her eight-year-old granddaughter, Belisha Edwards.
At her arraignment she pleaded not guilty and later on in the assizes a psychiatric evaluation was ordered.
It is alleged that Kelly stabbed her granddaughter to death while the child was holidaying at her Saddlers Village home during the wee hours of the morning. Edwards was the daughter of Kelly’s son, Leroy Elliott.
Browne was charged with the Sunday, October 25, 2009 murders of John Napier (75) and Sylvester Harris (37) and also the wounding of Wilfred Simmonds (52).
Jahdell Browne had pleaded not guilty during his arraignment on the murder and wounding charges where it is alleged he brutally chopped the murdered and wounded victims with a machete.
According to an SKNVibes report, police sources informed that Napier was attacked on the premises of his Cedar Grove house; Harris was assaulted while in his garden at Parray’s Housing, Upper Monkey Hill and Simmonds was wounded a short distance from there.
The then Police Press and Public Relations Officer, Inspector Cromwell Henry, confirmed that Napier died at his home and that Harris was transported to the Joseph N. France Hospital, where he subsequently died.
Kelly and Browne are being represented by both Senior Counsels Dr. Henry Browne and Hesketh Benjamin.
In terms of their trials a date will be announced during the Assizes.
