On Monday 12, 2007 Lawton Forbes of Hamilton was charged with inflicting grievous bodily harm and unlawfully and maliciously wounding Kimoy Huggins on August 26, 2007 at Hamilton. Chestly Hamilton represented him. He pleaded not guilty to the charges. Crown Counsel Ms. Bullen prosecuted the case which lasted for two days.
On the first day all witnesses gave evidence and on the second day the prosecutor and the defence counsel made their closing arguments and the judge gave summary/directions to the jury. The prosecution called five witnesses: the virtual complainant Kimoy Huggins, Javed Powel, Dwayne Freeman, Dr. Robert George and Constable Joel Caines.
Huggins told the court that some other friends including Javed were at a house in Hamilton when rain started falling. He said they went onto a landing. The accused came later, put down a bottle and pulled a knife and said one of them must get up. He told the court no one moved and Forbes walked off. He came back and asked for his knife and an argument began between the accused and him. He said the owner of the house came out and spoke to them and he apologized to her for swearing on her landing.
He told the court he left and went by a gate on the other side of the road where the accused came and put his hand into his face and hit him on his nose and pushed him. He said he pushed the accused who pushed him again and his foot slipped out of his shoe and when he bent to put it on the accused hit him on his head with a bottle and ran down the road towards his home.
He related that Forbes’s father walked up to him and asked him what had happened. He told the court while talking to the father he saw the accused with a steel pipe in his hand. He said while the father held him the accused struck him over the left eye with the steel pipe. He said the father let him go and said to the accused, “You see what you do to the boy?”
He said after he was struck he could not see and the accused’s father took him to the hospital. He told the court that he had to seek further medical attention in Trinidad and in Cuba and he still cannot see out of his right eye and cannot smell.
On cross-examination Huggins admitted bursting the accused’s head with a bottle. He also admitted that he was drinking that night but said he was not drunk. He denied going after the accused with a broken bottle. He also stated that before the incident he and the accused were friends. There were slight differences in the evidence given by Javed Powel.
For instance, he told the court both men had bottles. The accused had one in his hand and the virtual complaint had one in his pocket. He told the court they were hitting each other with the bottles. He said the accused ran down the road and the heard Kimoy saying, “Buzzy, de boy buss me head.”
He said he and Kimoy walked down the road with Kimoy saying he would not take it. He said Lawton’s father held Kimoy and told him to behave himself. He said while the accused father was holding him the accused ran up to Kimoy and struck him with a piece of steel.
He said the accused’s father asked him why he hit him and the accused replied, “Ah tell dem, they cyah play wid me.” He told the court the father took Kimoy to the hospital. On cross-examination he stated that Kimoy had something in his hand while going down the road.
Dwayne Freeman related to the court a conversation he had with the accused. He told the court the accused told him that Kimoy buss’ his head with a stone and he struck him with a piece of wire used to hold up the lamppost.
Dr Robert George told the court he examined Kimoy. His finding included laceration to the left side of the forehead, a depressed fracture to the skull and inability to see out of both eyes. He said Kimoy was bleeding out of the nose and the blood was mixed with cerebral fluid, which indicated that the membrane surrounding the brain had been ruptured and brain trauma in the form of a cerebral contusion, and that a certain degree of force had been applied to cause the injury.
Constable Caines who investigated the incident told the court he visited the hospital and met the virtual complaint, the accused, and the accused’s parent. He said the accused’s father said something to him but the accused did not answer any questions on theadvice of his mother.
After the prosecution had presented its case the defense sought to show the accused had acted in self defence. To establish this defense the accused elected not to give evidence but called a witness. The witness, his mother, told the court the virtual complaint that a broken bottle in his hand. He said he pulled away from her husband who was holding him and rushed towards the accused who picked up something from the ground and struck him once. One cross-examination this witness contradicted her own testimony.
The accused Lawton Forbes was convicted for inflicting grievous bodily harm and sentenced to five years hard labour.
