A man charged for the murder of an elderly man in 2016, pleaded to the lesser charge of manslaughter, in the St Ann Circuit Court on Tuesday, October 24.
Twenty-one-year-old, Jonah Robinson, pleaded guilty in the death of Cebert Lawes.
Robinson pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to manslaughter by virtue of diminished responsibility. This means Robinson has an excuse for pleading guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter. In his case it is as a result of mental illness from which he suffers.
Robinson was charged after hacking and stabbing Lawes to death outside Island Hoppers, near to the Reynolds Pier, Ocho Rios, St Ann, on March 5, 2016.
It is reported that Lawes was homeless.
It is alleged that the crown’s key witness was at his workplace, Island Hoppers and heard strange noises outside.
He went outside and saw Robinson using both hands to hit Lawes, several times, in his head with a stone.
The witness then summoned the police. Robinson proceeded to stab Lawes in his belly with a stick and fled the scene.
When the police apprehended Robinson, later that evening, he reportedly told them, under caution, “I wasn’t in my right mind when I killed the man.”
On another occasion, after he was charged, Robinson told the police under caution “I used a stone a to hit him, I wasn’t in my right mind I used the stone to kill him… I pushed the stick through his belly to finish him off so that he don’t come at me.”
Robinson was diagnosed to be schizophrenic, hence the crown accepted his plea of not guilty to murder but guilty of manslaughter by virtue of diminished responsibility.
Robinson is to be sentenced by high court judge Dale Palmer on Thursday November 2. He was further remanded in custody.
