Offender shows no remorse in Court

Stitches to the head, a split lip and severing of the tongue are some of the injuries that a New Montrose resident received after being attacked by a fellow villager last year.  

 Considering these injuries and others, including a severed distal portion of the thumb, and a wound to the scalp, Clem Neverson’s stance of self-defense could not stand against what was deemed to be excessive force.  

Senior Magistrate Rickie Burnett, convicted the New Montrose resident on Monday, June 28, for the April 26, 2020, unlawful and malicious wounding of 41-year-old Bencito Bramble.  

 The court noted that during the trial, Neverson did not show any remorse at all for his actions.
 
 “I do not understand how a defendant could know of the injuries that the complainant received and is showing absolutely no remorse at all, as though he is not even sorry for what was done,” the magistrate commented at the Kingstown Magistrate’s Court(KMC) on Monday.  

 The court had been privy to a medical report form that had been admitted into evidence during the trial, filled out by a doctor who attended to Bramble.  

 “When I see these injuries, I am no doctor, but…I can research myself,” Burnett stated. 

 Prosecutor, Sergeant Cornelius Tittle, also noted that Neverson has a history of violent crime.  

Perusing the defendant’s criminal record, the magistrate observed that the last conviction was for wounding a fellow villager in March 2015, and earlier in the same year, Neverson also cut a man on his finger with a cutlass.
 
 Neverson told the court that he had been attacked.  

 “I don’t understand…you are an unfortunate man,” the judicial officer told him.  

Burnett asked if another case wherein Neverson struck someone with a hammer, was also because someone attacked him.  

 “…what about Henry Neverson? He attacked you too?” the Senior Magistrate questioned.  

The defendant said that this was his father, and that when he was sleeping, his father came after him with a cutlass.
 
 Burnett asked Neverson about yet another individual, enquiring, “he attack you too?”, to which the defendant replied “Yes sir.” 

“…You have several previous convictions with your father. You have been to prison…so many times,” the magistrate remarked.  

 The defendant said that the first time he went to prison he had never committed a crime in his life, but he admitted to doing the other acts.  

 “But I thought you say they attack you?” Burnett commented.  

“They attack, and I just put a defense proper, and beat them,” the defendant said.  

 The magistrate also noted, “…I have been making reference to convictions that you have on the record, and I made reference to them not to influence my sentence in this particular matter, but more so to speak to the mind of the man Clem Neverson.”  

 Neverson’s record also reflected a conviction for arson, of a wooden house and its contents.  

 “…The house attack you?” the prosecutor asked him.  

The magistrate also observed that, listening to Neverson give evidence “I must confess that I came to the conclusion that you are a serious guy, you show no remorse at all, I mean, none whatsoever”, and the way he spoke wasn’t as if he was speaking about a human being.  

 “If them did care about me, they would have never try fight me,” Neverson said, also insisting that it was Bramble who started it.  

 The magistrate told him that he was extremely vicious in this matter, and his response was way out of proportion.  
The defendant claimed that Bramble had put up a strong defense against him.  

Bramble said a piece of his tongue was still missing.  

 The issue of compensation was also raised, as Bramble would also like recompense for his “pain and suffering”. However, the defendant would require to have the means to pay compensation if the court orders this. As it stands he is working with a retired policeman who looks after him, and makes sure he gets “a little change in my pocket”. He said he intends to do farming.  

 The magistrate announced his intention to reflect on the sentence, weighing these considerations and the sentencing guidelines, until Monday, July 5.  

 Bramble told SEARCHLIGHT that on the date in question he was “chilling” in town with his friends, when he got a call from his girlfriend. He caught a van to go back home, and when he alighted, he saw Neverson and another man in a van/taxi “chilling”. The taximan knows him he said, and invited him to join them, but he refused twice, saying that he was in a rush. Then the defendant began to follow him, he said, asking him to buy rum. It reached a point where he started to curse Neverson. He said Neverson then went home and got an axe and a hammer. Bramble said that he thought he was playing, so he stopped and turned around, and Neverson threw the axe, knocking his hat off.  The New Montrose resident said that Neverson kept “coming and attacking me, and I just kept backing up, backing up, backing up until I fell, and that’s when he jump on top of me and started hitting me with the axe and the hammer.” 

 Bramble said he grabbed the axe, and someone else came while Neverson was hitting him in the head with the hammer, and pulled the hammer out of his hand. He then grabbed Neverson and pulled him off of him, as other people apparently held Neverson back.  

 Bramble said he had to get stitches, and “My lip was split in two, and my tongue was split in three so it was real bad.” 

 Bramble, who wears locks, feels his hair is what absorbed some of the impact of the blows to his head.