Days after his friend and co-conspirator admitted his part in the 2016 killing of Simone Hackett, Cleavaughn Hamilton on Monday confirmed their joint roles in the slaying of the mother of his son whom he stabbed at least a dozen times.
Up until Thursday last, Hamilton remained resolute about his innocence, and was in firm protest at the lawyer he had been assigned by the State; after being unable to retain counsel despite being given a number of previous opportunities.
At his arraignment which followed, Hamilton pleaded not guilty to murdering his former partner, with whom he had a dispute over the custody of their son.
A jury was empaneled and Justice Sandil Kissoon subsequently set Monday for the commencement of Hamilton’s trial.
Before the prosecution could call its first witness, however, Hamilton indicated to the Court through his lawyer, his desire to take responsibility for the woman’s murder.
The charge was read to him once again—and this time—he accepted that he had murdered Hackett between April 16th and 19th, 2016.
Justice Kissoon has deferred his sentencing to September 26th—the same day that Hamilton’s friend and accomplice Ranachal Singh—will also be sentenced. The Court wants to first hear from probation and other social impact reports.
Singh, the taxi driver in whose car Hackett was murdered before Hamilton dumped her body in a Cummings Lodge trench, had also been indicted for the capital offence.
At his arraignment on Thursday he, however, pleaded to the lesser charge of manslaughter, accepting that he had unlawfully killed the woman.
The facts presented by Prosecutor Muntaz Ali, which the killers accepted, were that they contacted the unsuspecting woman, whom they lured to the UG road, under the pretext of having to uplift a package from one “Dexter.”
“Dexter,” the prosecutor said, is known to Hackett, as he is the person from whom she would usually collect items sent for her son by Hamilton, who resided at Mahaicony.
Believing that she was going to meet “Dexter,” the court was told that the woman left her Sophia home and set out along the UG road where she was instead picked up by Singh, along with Hamilton who was also in the vehicle.
The prosecutor said that Hackett entered the back seat and Ranachal drove off.
Ali said that it was while in the back seat that Hamilton unleashed his attack on the mother of his child; slashing her throat and stabbing her about the body, thus leaving a bloody trail in the vehicle.
The court would then hear that the men stopped the car at a bushy concrete bridge where Hamilton dragged Hackett out, and dumped her in a nearby trench, into which he also threw the knife he had used on her.
The duo then escaped to Mahdia, Region 8, in the said car which was used to conceal the act.
Ali said that on their journey, Hamilton told Singh to stop the vehicle at a canal where he (Hamilton) used his shirt to wipe away blood stains from the woman, which were left in the back of the car.
Ali said that following the discovery of the woman’s body days later, an investigation was launched which led to the arrest of Hamilton whom he said had confessed to police the part he played in killing the woman.
Ali said that lawmen would then later take possession of Singh’s car in which bloodstains were detected in the back seat and upon the floor, where maggots were found below the mats.
An autopsy would later confirm that the woman died from an incised wound to her neck, compounded by 11 other wounds about her body.
Hamilton is being represented by defence attorney Alaira Murphy-Goodman; while Singh is being represented by attorney Latchmie Rahamat.
It had been reported that on April 16th, Hackett left her Sophia home to pick up a package that she was told was sent for her son, who was celebrating his birthday the following day.
She, however, never returned home.
Three days later, two schoolboys found a body in a trench between Third and Fourth streets, Cummings Lodge. It later turned out to be Hackett’s.
