TO:
His Excellency
Walter Wilkinson Wallace, C.B.E., D.S.C., Governor of the British Virgin Islands, Road Town, Tortola.
Report pursuant to Section 68 of the Criminal Procedure Act Cap. 20 in the matter of the Queen v. Sylvester Gaston
Sylvester Gaston was charged with having on the 19th day of
January, 1977 murdered Evelyn Rabsatt,
Evelyn Rabsatt (hereinafter referred to as the deceased) was
a woman aged about 66 years. She lived at Major Bay Road where she
ran a business comprising a dance hall, a grocery and a pool room
with a kitchen attached.
Sylvester Gaston (hereinafter referred to as the accused) is
a St. Lucian. He came to Tortola in or about September 1976 and
was putting up with his sister Julita Gaston who lived at Major Bay
with her boyfriend P.C. Vancito Pickering of the Royal Virgin Islands
Police Force.
It is admitted that the accused was a fairly regular visitor
of the deceased and that she was one of the very few friends the
accused had in Tortola. Apparently he was a loner and had few
friends. He speaks of having but three male friends in Tortola in
the persons of one Atwell, one Ed and Franzel Penn, the grandson of
the deceased. He had been a smoker of marijuana for some five years
and in Tortola had but two or three friends with whom he smoked.
It would appear that the effect this drug produced on him was to
make him passive and meditative, thus he enjoyed going to the hills
to admire the trees. He was apparently backward at school and the
consultant psychiatrist, Dr. Mahey's assessment of him is that he
was mentally retarded.
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.