– husband re-arrested
The 25-year-old mother of four, who was turned into a human torch, allegedly by her partner on September 18 over an argument about milk, succumbed to her injuries yesterday at the Georgetown Public Hospital.
Police said Carmelita Jones of ‘B’ Field, Sophia, died in the burns care unit where she was nursing first and second degree burns to her entire body.
The woman had given her name to this newspaper as Latoya James.
According to police, it is alleged that the woman’s reputed husband Melroy Simpson, 34 years, threw a flammable liquid on her while she was holding a lamp that was lit at the time. Simpson was charged with inflicting grievous bodily harm on September 21, when he appeared at the Sparendaam Magistrates’ Court and was placed on $200,000 bail. He has since been re-arrested and is in police custody.
In an interview with Stabroek News, the woman had alleged that her reputed husband of five years doused her with gasoline and then set her alit after allegations that she had received milk for their 5-month-old baby from a man. The woman described the tumultuous relationship she shared.
“He is always abuse me. He used to beat me with big wood, pot spoon, every lil thing he used to beat me with,” she said. She could not bring herself at first to explain why she stayed after years of torment but eventually stated that the man was the sole provider of the family.
The woman is survived by her four children who are now being cared for by her mother.
