A St. Ann man who is said to be mentally ill and was charged for the murder of his neighbor in St Ann’s Bay in 2012 has pleaded guilty to the crime.Nineteen-year-old Romario Thompson of Gully Road, St Ann’s Bay, St Ann offered the guilty plea on Tuesday, February 4, before Justice. Marjorie Cole-Smith in the St Ann Circuit Court.Thompson was charged for killing his 37-year-old neighour, Richard Grant also of Gully Road, in the parish. Mrs Justice Marjorie Cole-Smith has put off sentencing until Friday, February 21. She has also ordered that a social enquiry report be done on the accused and presented to the court ahead of his sentencing. According to the allegations in the case, on Tuesday, October 16, 2012, Thompson, also called ‘Kaka’ who was being treated for mental illness had a dispute with his mother about his medication. He claimed that she had putt the medication in his meal and it was causing him to develop breathing problems.The argument between the mother and her son escalated and Grant, who was Thompson’s neighbor at the time of the incident, reportedly intervened and attempted to quell the quarrel between the two. Thompson reportedly left and returned shortly after with a chopper which he used to inflict a wound to Grant’s neck. Grant died on the spot. Following the incident the accused reportedly told his mother that he would not harm her and that he was going to the police station.The accused later turned himself in to the nearby St. Ann’s Bay police where he was arrested and charged.
