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Oneil Battick
An eighteen-year-old man was found guilty of murder by a jury on Wednesday, October 21 in the St. Ann Circuit Court.
Steve Wilson is the man found guilty of the 2013 murder of 17-year-old Oneil Battick, alias ‘Goofy’, a Grade 11 student of Ocho Rios High School.
Reports were that at about 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, January 23, 2013, Oneil and other students were at O.K. Mart in St. Ann’s Bay, St. Ann when an argument developed. Oneil was stabbed in the neck with a pair of scissors by the accused, Wilson. Oniel was later taken to the St. Ann’s Bay Hospital where he died.
FOUR WITNESSES
The trial got under way Tuesday afternoon, October 20. The prosecution led by crown counsels, Cadeen Barnett and deputy director of public prosecution, Sharon Milwood-Moore, called four witnesses throughout the two-day duration of the trial.
The prosecution’s main area of focus throughout the trial was to prove that the accused, Wilson had intentionally stabbed Battick to cause harm which resulted in his death. Testimony was heard from the mother of Battick, Marvalin Anderson.
Tevin Bailey, a friend of Battick for ten years, gave crucial testimony that Wilson, who he described as ‘the one with the pink handkerchief’ and others came off a bus and subsequently arguments developed between the accused and Bailey. The accused left the scene and came back with four school boys and one dressed in a blue muscle shirt. According to Bailey, Battick was trying to ease the tensions that had developed. The man in the blue muscle shirt told the accused, Wilson, ‘to do weh yuh cum fi do.’ It was at this that Bailey said the accused hit Battick in the left side of the neck and ran off. Battick, Bailey and another friend ran after the accused, but later Battick said he was feeling weak and it was then he noticed that blood was coming from his neck and he noticed a small hole in the side of his neck. Bailey took Battick to the hospital to get treatment and he never saw his friend alive again.
Another friend of Battick, Jovaughn Rose explained that there was an argument between a group of students and Battick was trying to defuse the tensions. He was on his phone and never saw the stabbing, but said he ‘heard a loud slap.’
On Wednesday, October 21, the investigating officer, Detective Constable Jones, gave testimony that the accused was arrested at the house where he was staying with his aunt in Steer Town, St. Ann. The blue handle paper scissors that the accused used to stab Battick was also retrieved.
SELF-DEFENSE
The trial also heard from the accused, Steve Wilson who said that five students attacked him and he had to use the knife as defense, because “they would have killed me.”
The defence led by attorney Ernest Smith also maintained throughout the trial that Wilson was seen as ‘a little boy,’ when compared to Battick’s friend, Tevin Bailey and others who were older and physically stronger.
The twelve-member jury retired late Wednesday afternoon to deliberate on a verdict and when they returned, the foreman announced that the decision was 11 to 1. Presiding high court judge, Justice Lloyd Hibbert told the jurors that this verdict could not be accepted unless two hours had passed. They were sent again to deliberate.
When they returned, the 11 to 1 guilty verdict was revealed.
Wilson is to be sentenced on October 30. He was taken into custody until that time
