Cleavaughn Hamilton and his friend Ranachal Singh have both been sentenced to life in prison for their roles in the 2016 killing of Hamilton’s former partner and the mother of his son, Simone Hackett.
“Deliberate, calculated and cruel,” were some of the words used by Justice Sandil Kissoon to describe the attack on the young mother, who was brutally stabbed in the back seat of Singh’s car as the killers embarked on what the Judge described as an “errand of evil.”
Earlier this month, the two threw themselves at the mercy of the Court— Hamilton pleading guilty to murder—and Singh, to the lesser charge of manslaughter, though he too had originally been charged with the capital offence.
Hackett had 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 her body in a trench between Third and Fourth streets, Cummings Lodge.
In brief addresses to the court, they spoke of being sorry for their actions, with Hamilton lamenting the significant loss he has caused his now nine-year-old son, who was only three years old when he took his mother from him.
The court heard from a probation report of his regret for acting in an “irrational” way and wishing “I could turn back the hands of time.”
For his part, Singh spoke of his regret at placing the call to the now-dead woman on the fateful day, noting that she would not have left her house had it not been for his call.
Justice Kissoon was keen in pointing, however, that both men were equally culpable and that from the prosecution’s case, Singh could not be believed that he simply had no knowledge of the murderous rampage that was being unleashed on the unsuspecting mother, two feet away in the back seat of his car.
Justice Kissoon said that Singh “had the audacity, with a straight face,” to say that his singular wrong was making the call to Hackett which lured her out of her home, away from family and friends who would have readily rushed to her aid, had they the slightest inkling of what was going to transpire.
The Judge said that Singh was in on the act of “concocted deception” and went further by lending support—aiding and abetting Hamilton after—to conceal the crime.
Referencing initial pretrial hearings at which maximum sentence indications had been discussed with both the defence teams and the prosecution, the Judge noted that it had not been because of remorse that the two threw themselves at the mercy of the Court, but more because of the overwhelming evidence against them, owing to diligent police work.
The Judge lamented what he said was the prevalence of domestic and intimate partner violence which continues to see women losing their lives in record number in a country of less than a million people.
Such violence, he said, seems to have gone “unchecked,” which he said “is of grave concern to the Judiciary.”
‘Devils in disguise’
In a moving tribute to her niece, whom she described as fun-loving and a pillar to their family structure, Leota Greene-Watson in her victim impact statement said that she is still haunted by the call she disconnected on that fateful day her now-dead niece called her.
She said that the muffled sounds coming through the phone led her to believe that Simone’s cell phone had pocket-dialed, and so she disconnected the call, realizing only after she had gone missing and then her body found, that she was trying to call her aunt in a bid to reach out for help.
She said that she and her niece were close, but even more, she recalled the bond she shared with her son, for whom “she would have done anything.”
Greene-Watson said that the young lad is now beginning to understand the fate with which his mother met but said that he still has more questions than answers.
Describing her niece as a humble soul, the woman said that her life was taken by “monsters, beasts… devils in disguise in human form.”
Stating that he had found no mitigating factors, Justice Kissoon imposed the life sentences on the duo, with the order that they are not to be eligible for parole before serving a minimum of 35 years.
Hackett had been murdered between April 16 and April 19, 2016.
The facts as previously 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 someone named “Dexter.”
It was Singh who made the call.
“Dexter,” the prosecutor had said, was known to Hackett, as he was 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 Singh drove off.
Ali said that it was while in the backseat 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 Eight, in the car.
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 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 backseat 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 was represented by defence attorney Alaira Murphy-Goodman, while Singh was represented by attorney Latchmie Rahamat.
