BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - AFTER more than one year at Her Majesty's Prison awaiting sentencing hearing, Alpha 'Raga' Duporte would finally be appearing at the Basseterre High Court to hear his fate.
He was convicted on December 5, 2011 for the July 18, 2009 killing of Dexter ‘Asbal’ Marsham and the attempted killing of Royden Gumbs and Jessica Gumbs in Godwin Ghaut.
Duporte has been awaiting sentencing pending psychiatric evaluation by Dr. Sharron Halliday.
At a status hearing on December 12, 2012, Dr. Halliday reported that Duporte had no mental illness and declared him fit to be punished for his crime.
The doctor had told the Court that she would be doing a final interview with Duporte on December 18 and would have been submitting her final analysis before the year ended.
Duporte should have been sentenced sometime during the January 2013 Criminal Assize.
Acting Director of Public Prosecutions Rhonda Nisbett-Brown told the Court that the sentencing was not possible due to the unavailability of Dr. Halliday, who had been travelling and who would have to give her final analysis of the convict before judgment is passed.
She however explained that the doctor would have been on island in June and would have therefore been available to give Duporte's analysis.
At Duporte's trial, the prosecution’s witnesses identified him at the scene of the crime, and one of them said she saw him standing over Marsham shooting him while he was on the ground.
Jessica Gumbs, who said she had just returned home when she heard a commotion up the hill, told the Court that she saw Duporte, whom she had known since he was a baby, standing over Marsham shooting him.
She was shot in the leg during the ordeal and so was her son Royden Gumbs.
Royden Gumbs said that he was coming out of a shop on the day of the murder and saw “Alpha and his people dem”.
He said they began throwing stones at him and he went down the hill backwards to avoid being hit.
Another witness, Kyam Veira, said he saw someone who appeared to be Duporte behind a tamarind tree shooting and that he was dressed in a white jersey.
Sister of Dexter Marsham, Jacintha Marsham, who is also the mother of Duporte’s son, said that on July 18, 2009 Duporte went to pick up her son and was wearing a white jersey, a black tam, black shoes and black or brown pants.
The evidence from Barbadian Pathologist Dr. Stephen Jones, who performed the post mortem on Marsham’s remains, said that the deceased had five gunshot wounds and that he recovered two bullets from his body.
His Lorship Justice Errol Thomas would be passing judgment on Duporte tomorrow (Jul. 11).
