Police are hunting an 18-year-old labourer who allegedly repeatedly knifed a 29-year-old man after being accused of stealing a cellular phone and cleaning out a bank account.
Jermaine Jones called `Kaieteur’ of Diamond Housing Scheme, East Bank Demerara sustained 14 stab wounds to various parts of his body and died before reaching the Leonora Cottage Hospital where he was rushed. The suspect, Eddie Williams fled with a bag containing unknown items and the murder weapon. He was covered in blood.
According to a police press release issued yesterday afternoon, Jones was murdered around 5am. Investigations have so far revealed that Jones and the teenaged suspect, who resides at Back Street Ruimzigt, West Coast Demerara – where the incident occurred, had an argument over a cell phone. During the argument, the release said, Jones was stabbed about the body.
The suspect’s aunt, Michelle Thomas told Stabroek News that around 3:30am yesterday she was awoken by someone hollering and initially thought that it was her sick brother. How-ever, when she later investigated, she saw Jones hitting Williams on his head, foot and about his body with a baseball bat. The woman pointed to a wooden object which was lying in a pool of water surrounding by grass, in the yard.
According to her, Williams was hollering and she pleaded with the two men to make peace. “Ah tell Jermaine to lef he (Williams) alone. He was lil high cause he went drinking and he wasn’t listening to me”, Thomas said adding that during the fight, Jones managed to take away two knives that Williams had in his possession. She said Jones later asked Williams if he was trying to kill him.
Thomas recalled that a head wound Williams sustained was bleeding and the teen later ran into the house. Jones, she said, followed him into a bedroom and they continued quarrelling over a cellular phone and some money that was stolen from the teen’s 75-year-old grandfather.
According to Thomas, the teen did have the phone but apparently it was a male acquainted with a member of the family who stole the elderly man’s bank card and withdrew all the money from the account. She said that the two kept arguing and she kept pleading with them to make peace.
At one point Thomas recalled Jones asking the elderly man what he wanted to see come out of the story. In response the elderly man reportedly said he wanted back his phone and money. Minutes later, Thomas recalled, Jones said that the only way this could happen was if Williams was tied up and taken to the police station.
Thomas said that she advised Williams to go to the police station so that the matter could be dealt with. The woman said that she was standing on the landing of the modest wooden structure when she heard Jones calling for his girlfriend’s son to come to his assistance. At the time of the incident, his girlfriend was at work.
According to Thomas when she looked, she saw Williams standing in the hall with a knife in his hand and she began telling the teen “to lef he alone” after which the two scuffled. Moments later, she recalled, she saw “Eddie dragging Jermaine to the backdoor and ah start hollering for help but nobody ain’t come”. She said she later saw Williams with the knife up in the air over Jones who wasn’t making a sound.
Thomas said that the teen’s white pants were covered with blood and he picked up a black plastic bag before bolting out the front door which was open. “After he done do it he had a mad look on he face and me ain’t stand in he way. He still had de knife in he hand”, the woman told this newspaper.
She recalled that about a month ago, Jones had confronted Williams about theft.
Suspicious
Meanwhile when Stabroek News visited Jones’ Lot 1368 Seventeen Street home, preparations for a wake had begun and persons discussed the incident. His mother, Joylen, said that she finds the circumstances surrounding the death of her son very suspicious and she strongly believes that there is more to the story than is being told.
She recalled that she last saw her son on Monday morning when he left for Toolsie Persaud Limited where he was employed. The woman said that he did not return home that night but she did not find that strange since he would sometimes spend a few days at his girlfriend’s home. The two have been together for about two years.
Joylen recalled that previously Jones had said that Williams had stolen an iPod from him but she could not say what came out of that incident. Sometime after 7am yesterday, a woman who identified herself as Jones’ girlfriend’s sister called and informed her that Jones had died. “Ah call to say that Jermaine get stab up around 3am and police just say he died”, the woman recalled, the person on the other end saying.
Joylen said she was later told that the suspect had stolen his grandfather’s card and cellular phone and that Jermaine started lashing him. “As far as ah concern they mixin up themselves. There is more to this story”, she said. The woman added that she was told that the girlfriend went to work and left Jones sleeping. “Is sleeping he been sleepin. They ketch meh child in he sleep”, she said explaining that her son would have easily overpowered the teen. Jones also leaves to mourn his stepfather, Oslyn Simpson and three siblings.
