3
to assume that the accused's story that the deceased had constantly
accused him, and in public, of stealing her money is true; and that
it is also true that it caused him considerable distress. The loss
apparently took place about a week before the fatal incident and the
accusations persisted throughout that week. Not only, the accused
says, did the deceased accuse him but she threatened to set the
police on him and to put obeah on him and these too caused him
considerable distress. There is no evidence that any of her family
ever assisted her to investigate her loss, not even Franzel who
lived with her, and so unfortunately she was left to her own devices,
In fact Franzel and the accused were quite easy and he had employed
the accused on the very day before the incident to assist him in
casting a concrete column at his home then being constructed.
circumstances so distressed the accused that he decided and planned
to quit Tortola.
These
It is interesting to observe that we have never been told
how much money was missing. Perhaps no one knows, But it must be
This
remarked that nothing was found among the accused's belongings and
such as was found on his person could only have been the balance
of the $10.00 he had earned the day before from Franzel Penn.
fact points clearly to the conclusion, unless the amount stolen was
a mere pittance, that the accused was being wrongfully accused.
And this can indeed be hurtfuli So may be this accounts for his
decision to quit Tortola.
Now, the accused we were told by the psychiatrist Dr. Mahey,
is mentally retarded. He speaks intelligently if spoken to but
otherwise is very reserved. He had a history of getting giddy and
going blank at times and of having headaches off and on especially
in moments of strain, and this the psychiatrist observed was
consistent with his reserve and mental retardation.
Such a person
would, the psychiatrist said, crack more easily than a normal person.