A mentally-ill woman, who had pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of infanticide in the St. Mary Circuit Court, was given a three -year suspended sentence in the Home Circuit Court in Kingston. That means she will not go to prison unless she commits another crime.
Forty-two-year-old Michelle Stewart, a vendor of Fort George, Annotto Bay, St Mary was the woman charged with the death of her baby, 11-month-old Lyndon Mattison.
Her sentence was handed down on Thursday, April 28 by Justice Carol Lawrence-Beswick.
Stewart’s attorney, Christopher Hibbert explained to the North Coast Times that a supervision order was also attached to his client’s sentence to ensure that she has regular psychiatric evaluation and treatment.
Stewart will not serve any prison time, but will be supervised over the next three years. However, if she violates the order or commits an offence over the three year period, the order can be revoked and then the suspended sentence enforced.
Stewart was said to be suffering from severe mental illness when she committed the act in 2013.
BABY CHOPPED TO DEATH
Allegations are that on Thursday morning, January 10, 2013 at about 6:20, Lynval Mattison, who was Stewart’s baby’s father, left his son in the care of Stewart and went to work. He told police that all had appeared fine when he left for work.
At about ten minutes after eight that same morning, Stewart walked into the Annotto Bay police station with what appeared to be blood on her face and shirt.
She then reportedly told the police: “Me can’t bother with the problem. Mi and mi baby father fight and him say fight me off from last night and mash up me phone. This morning him tell me say, when him come him a go kill me, so mi tek one machete and kill me baby.”
Stewart was accompanied by the police officers and went to the house in Fort George where the babywas seen with a large wound to the neck, in bed.
Stewart was placed into custody.
A post-mortem showed a chop wound to the neck and a chop wound to the back of the left arm and forearm. In the doctor’s opinion, the death was as a result of the chop wounds.
MENTAL TREATMENT
In a report on the case file from Dr. Peta-Gaye Reynolds, Stewart’s doctor, it was revealed that she has been a patient at the Annotto Bay Hospital receiving psychiatric treatment since 1992. In 1996, she was diagnosed with a psychological related disorder. Between that time and 2014, she was an outpatient at the psychiatric clinic and her psychosis was changed to bipolar disorder type 1. A last medical report done diagnosed her on November 21, 2015 with a disorder of the mind known as schizophrenia.
It was also noted those days after the infanticide, Stewart displayed psychotic features and admitted to auditory hallucinations telling her to kill herself and to her baby. DRAMATIC TWIST
There was a dramatic twist in Stewart’s murder case on Tuesday, February 23, just a day prior to its start in the St. Mary Circuit Court, when she pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of infanticide.
The guilty plea of infanticide was accepted by Justice Carol Lawrence-Beswick. A seven- member jury later found her not guilty on the murder charge as the prosecution offered no further evidence.
Stewart was later offered bail by Justice Carol Lawrence-Beswick on the charge of infanticide in the sum of $250,000 and sentencing moved to the Home Circuit Court in late April.
