A man implicated in the brutal stabbing of a woman in the morning rush hour near the centre of Ocho Rios last year, has denied ever stabbing the woman 20 times.
These developments occurred when the case was mentioned in the St Ann Circuit Court on Friday, June 9.
Fifty-nine-year-old Norman Thomas, also called Ned, a vendor, of James Avenue, Ocho Rios in the parish, was charged with the murder of 22-year-old Kyria Nelson, loan clerk of Pimento Walk, near Ocho Rios.
Prosecutors said that the accused man and the deceased (Kyria Nelson) had a relationship and on June 29, last year, Thomas saw her at a public space. An argument developed and the accused man later inflicted multiple stab wounds to the woman. The prosecutor said it was 20 stab wounds.
However, this comment did not sit well with Thomas, who put up his hand to speak to presiding judge Justice Glen Brown.
“Mi neva stab her 20 times,” Thomas said when he was given his opportunity to speak.
The judge asked him how many times he stabbed her.
Thomas said that on the day in question Nelson rushed to her bag and said that “she ago acid me.” He said he only cut her.
“If you see where mi give her one stab, send me to prison fi di rest a mi life,” Thomas told the judge.
However, Mr Justice Brown explained that he was not trying the matter on that day (June 9).
The judge examined the case file and later told Thomas that the post-mortem report indicated that there were 20 stab wounds.
“I never give her one stab,” Thomas once again blurted out, while adding that he wanted to see the witness who saw him stabbing her.
In the meantime, Thomas has retained new legal representation in the matter. The case will be mentioned on October 9 and Thomas was further remanded into custody.
The North Coast Times reported that a long running relationship between the two had gone sour. Reports are Thomas was trying to get from Nelson money made at a fish fry, days earlier on which he still owed bills. She was not taking his calls.
Reports are that shortly after 8 a.m. on that Wednesday, June 29, 2016, after an attempt a few minutes earlier to get Nelson’s attention, Thomas walked up to her at her office. She had arrived early and was alone having just opened the office. They exchanged a few words and he started stabbing her. Loud screams pierced the morning air at Torpedo Loan Company on Brown’s Plaza. The screaming continued as he repeatedly plunged a knife into her body and then slashed her throat.
Screaming and bloodied, she ran into a salon next door, as he chased her and continued stabbing her. In the salon, she fell onto a chair and called out for help. Then she collapsed, falling backward, with blood gushing from her throat.
She was taken to the hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
