A Guyanese man was on Tuesday sentenced to life in prison by an Australian court after he was found guilty of murdering his mother back in 2012, the Australian Sunshine Coast Daily has reported.
According to the report, shock and despair surged through Horace Lorenzo Jones in the court dock on Tuesday when a 10-member jury found him guilty of murdering his mother Roxane Gilbert in Gladstone on June 29, 2012.
The court heard that Jones struck his mother 25 times with a samurai sword and steak knife.
Jones reportedly kept his head bowed and shook it in disbelief as Justice Duncan McMeekin drove home “the brutality of the events around your mother’s death”, during his summary of the evidence before Rockhampton Supreme Court.
Jones, who the court heard was a sponsored, premier-level basketball player in Gladstone and Bundaberg, was sentenced to life imprisonment.
That prison sentence carries a 15-year prison term, because the murder took place before June 30, 2012.
During sentencing, Jones’s lawyer, Lars Falcongreen, said his client had worked across several jobs in 2012, before he was arrested for his mother’s death.
He worked as a customer service representative at a McDonald’s outlet and as a mechanic at an auto body store.
Falcongreen told the court that since Jones had been remanded in custody in July 2012, he had replayed his mother’s “brutal” killing “over and over again” in his head.
“He misses her in many ways,” Falcongreen said on behalf of his client. “He is very remorseful… he realises he has killed someone,” the lawyer said.
Justice McMeekin said he was satisfied that on June 29 Jones had struck his mother 25 times from behind.
Justice McMeekin also said he was satisfied that a combination of Gilbert’s wish for her children to be successful, the influence of friends on Jones and other factors, were what triggered the 21-year-old’s attack on his mother.
Falcongreen said his client had only ever been before the court for a public nuisance offence in Gladstone.
Gilbert’s body was found wrapped in a plastic drop sheet and tarp in the back seat of her abandoned car near the Calliope River the next day. She had 31 cuts and stab wounds.
In a recorded interview with the police after the crime the young man said he had some “built up fury.” Jones said the night before Gilbert’s death he heard her hitting his three-year-old brother. “It made me feel so angry,” he said. “I just had a feeling it could happen at any time… if she went too far it could happen.” He said that morning he “just snapped.”
The newspaper said in gruesome detail, Jones explained to detectives how he used an ornamental sword to “pierce her heart. It pretty much deflated… it did deflate,” he said. “It’s the sorriest thing I had to do.”
Jones said his mother kept asking: “Why are you doing this? I’m your mum.”
“You treat me like I’m no one, I’m not your son,” he said he replied.
Jones told police he knew what he did was wrong.
“If I could I would take it back, but what I’ve done is permanent,” he said.
According to Jones, the pair had a “dark” relationship.
Meantime, during the trial it was revealed that Gilbert had a criminal history, which included a conviction for kicking a police officer in the groin. She was charged and sentenced to six months in prison for that crime. On July 25, 2005, Gilbert was also charged with obstructing police officers in the performance of their duties.
The charge related to an incident where Gilbert tried to swim away from police officers who were trying to arrest her in Gladstone. The court also heard during another encounter with Gladstone Police, that Gilbert ripped a singlet off an officer. Gilbert had a substantial criminal history from 2001 to 2006, the court heard.
