Warrington Phillip’s trial begins

By Pauline Waruguru
Nevis Reporter-SKNVibes.com

The late  Shermel Phillip

The Crown, which is being lead by Barbadian Attorney-at-law Sir Richard Cheltenham QC, is hoping to prove that on the night of February 16, 2007, the accused stabbed his wife to death while she was in her vehicle within the yard of her Brown Hill home.

When the trial opened yesterday morning, a jurors’ selection session was held after which Sir Richard addressed the jury on the particulars of the case.

Shermel’s mother, Audette Weekes, was the first of three witnesses to take the stand. She told the court that she was aware of instances where the accused had physically abused the deceased.

Weekes told the court that her daughter and Phillip were married in 2002 on the high sea aboard a catamaran. She described Shermel to have been a friendly, loving and beautiful person, and noted that in the early stages the marriage was fine but deteriorated over the years. She recalled a 2003 incident in which she responded to a 6:00 a.m. telephone call her daughter made.

Weekes said when she arrived at her daughter’s residence she saw that her right hand was swollen after an alleged beating by the accused. She further stated that she counseled them and advised that they should strive to live lovingly.

Weekes told the court of another incident that occurred on February 14, 2006 when her daughter called and requested she meet her at Mansa’s. She explained that on arrival at Mansa’s parking lot, she saw Shermel and her friend, Yvonne Glasgow, in a car and Phillip was also there but in another vehicle begging her daughter to return home.   ~~Adz:Right~~

“Shermel come home, it is not gonna happen again,” were the words Weekes told the court she heard Phillip said on that day.  

Weekes also said that sometime in May 2006 she got another call from her daughter concerning physical abuse and together, she and Shermel, reported the incident to the then Superintendent Joseph Liburd at the Cotton Ground Police Station.

She explained that following this incident, Shermel moved out of the matrimonial home and stayed at her friend’s (Yvonne Glasgow) home for a week and later to Cole Hill at Shelia Liburd’s residence until June 2006 when she rented the house in Brown Hill, where she met her demise.

Weekes testified that on December 20, 2006 she responded to another call by her daughter. She said that while at her daughter’s residence, Phillip went into the house and asked his wife to remove some linen from a bed in the bedroom and he “packed the bed in a pick-up”. She also said that Phillip disconnected a washing machine, and while on his way to the kitchen he grabbed a silver chain that his wife had around her neck and threatened her with a bottle that contained water when she attempted to stop him from doing it.

Weekes told the court that she stepped between them and told her son-in-law, “Not this afternoon!” She noted that her action had angered Phillip, who, when addressing her, used a number of expletives.

On the day of Shermel Phillip’s death, Weekes said she had seen her for a short while at about 7:00 p.m. when she [Shermel] was on her way from collecting her child from the Ivor Walters Primary School’s Sports meet.

Weekes told the court that minutes after seeing her daughter and while at her home in Hamilton, she received a few telephone calls but “nobody was saying anything to me”. She said that she drove to Brown Hill and saw many cars and a large crowd by her daughter’s residence.

At this stage of her testimony, Weekes was overcome by emotion and broke into tears. And when asked by Sir Richard if she had seen her daughter on that fateful evening, Weekes said, “I did not see her”, and added that the last time she saw her was when she had passed her residence after collecting her son from the Meet.

In her testimony, Glasgow, Conference Services Manager at the Four Seasons Resort, told the court that she was Shermel’s confidante and friend. She said that on February 12, 2006, the deceased had called her around midnight and complained that she was being beaten by her husband and he took the phone from his wife and spoke with her.

Glasgow said she asked him why he was beating his wife and warned that if he continued she would have informed the police. She noted that he told her it was none of her business, and on the following day when Shermel reported for work she saw her right ear was swollen.

The third witness, Dennis ‘Rudi’ Browne, a neighbour the deceased, also took the stand and told the court of how he discovered Shermel’s body in her car after she was killed.

He said that on Friday, February 16, 2007 at about 7:45 p.m. while passing Shermel’s residence, he saw a car in her yard with the hazard lights on. Browne said he walked into the yard and realised somebody was in the car. He told the court that he opened one of the doors, saw it was Shermel and called out to her but she did not respond. Browne said he touched her leg and, again, there was no response.

On realising something was amiss, Browne said he called out to the next door neighbour, Mrs. Fahie, wife of Retired Commissioner of Police Calvin Fahie. He noted that Mrs. Fahie and her husband rushed to the scene and the latter opened one of the car’s door and he was able to clearly see Shermel’s body with the aid of the Fahies’ flashlight. 

In describing what he saw that night, Browne said Shermel’s eyes “were fixed, her tongue was out and there was a pool of blood around the neck”. He also said that he and the Fahies notified the police.

The accused, former Leeward Islands left arm leg spin-bowler, is being represented by Dr. Henry Browne.

The list of 26 prosecution witnesses should shorten today as others, including Barbadian forensic pathologist Dr. Stephen Jones, will take the stand and present their evidence before the jury. Dr. Jones performed the autopsy on the remains of the 27-year-old woman and is expected to tell the court the cause of her death.