BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – AFTER being incarcerated in Her Majesty’s Prison for 62 months for the alleged murder of a popular businessman in St. Kitts, Devon ‘Patches’ Fyfield and Amal Whyte this morning (Nov. 3) exited the Sir Lee Llewellyn Moore Judicial and Legal Services Complex as free men.
Fyfield and Whyte were charged with the 2005 murder of Hubert Phipps, owner of the then Trade Link on the Bay Road in Basseterre.
The two accused appeared before Justice Marlene Carter and, speaking with SKNVibes, Hesketh Benjamin said whilst Dr. Henry Browne and Marsha Henderson had represented Whyte, he and Marissa Hobson appeared for Fyfield.
He said that the trial should have commenced some three weeks ago but because of one of the jurors declared that they were related to one of accused, the matter had to be done afresh.
“The first attempt, I must say wasn’t a trial. The first attempt of this case, to get it done in the first instance, the Court had to abort the matter because after about 10 witnesses being taken one of the jurors said that they found out they were close, family wise, to one of the accused persons.
He however stated after all the evidence was presented, Dr. Browne made a no case submission for Whyte and he did likewise for his client.
Explaining what transpired in the High Court, Benjamin said: The case involved considerable DNA evidence, fibre evidence and so on. In the final analysis however, there was no findings that these two men were tainted to the extent that a judge having to address a jury in a proper, legal and factual approach to the matter.
“She was of the view that no jury could have returned a guilty verdict. So, she analysed the case from the factual standpoint, she analysed the case from the legal standpoint, from the medical standpoint and the expertise standpoint, and she actually requested the clerk to address the jury in terms of returning a not guilty verdict on both sides. She found in both limbs that there was a no case.”
Benjamin stated that one of the problems encountered by the prosecution resulted from a particular piece of evidence found in Fyfield’s home.
“One of the problems they had was that when the chief investigator went to Fyfield’s home he gathered a number of items, and in one case in particular there was a fibre which is said came from Phipps’ home and they found it in his place. It was allegedly found in the pocket of a coat.
“The problem the prosecution had there was that they gave evidence that in Fyfield’s house there were a number of people who used to live there, sleep there and two of those witnesses, at least, would have been in Phipps’ house during the same month.”
The veteran lawyer noted that the telling factor was that the police had removed the items from Fyfield’s home but did not take further steps to find out who owned them.
“So one of the questions the judge asked was: ‘Well, you found this fibre in the coat, but was it a man’s coat or a woman’s coat?’ Bearing in mind that women and men live in Fyfield’s place!”
He informed that a witness for the Crown had told the Court that prior to Phipps’ death she normally visited his home.
To that revelation, Benjamin questioned, “Could she have brought that fibre to Fyfield’s place?”
He also informed that the Court was told that “there was no identification of the two masked men at the scene”.
At about 7:30 a.m. on June 24, 2005, Phipps’ lifeless, bloodied and bound body was discovered in his Wades Garden home and an autopsy later revealed that he died as a result of suffocation.
Shortly after the murder occurred, the then Commissioner of Police, Robert Jeffers, explained that the assistance of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) would be enlisted. In April 2006, while speaking on a local radio talk show, Jeffers told the nation that he had received “an interim report” from the FBI “on the forensic analysis of the Phipps murder”.
He said based on the evidence gathered up until then, “We can charge persons with that.”
Some three years after Jeffers made that statement (Friday, July 3, 2009), the then 26-year-old Fyfield and Whyte (24) of Wades Garden and Trafalgar Village, respectively, were officially arrested and charged with Phipps’ murder.
Hubert Phipps was reportedly a member of the St. Vincent Police Force and last served at that institution as Deputy Commissioner. He was also a member of the Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force, where he attained the rank of Superintendent before leaving sometime between 1979 and 1980.
