21-year-old man to be deported to stand trial in UK

A 21-year-old wanted for murder in the United Kingdom (UK) will be deported from St Vincent and the Grenadines(SVG) and sent back to the UK, in order to stand trial for the offence.
Chief Magistrate Rechanne Browne-Matthias made this decision after the conclusion of a hearing to determine whether there was enough evidence for the young accused to be deported for trial.
The accused, Dawan Dorrell Francis, also known as Dawan Dorrell Barker, was residing in Twenty Hill, Penniston, when he was picked up by police on January 19, 2018, pursuant to an international arrest warrant placed against him.

This warrant, as evidenced by Inspector Junior Simmons, was for the offence of murder on Wa’ays Dhaye allegedly committed on September 1, 2015, in Slough, Berkshire in the UK, as contrary to the common law of England and Wales.

A trial has already been conducted in the UK which has convicted three co-accused for the death of Dhaye, these being Khianni Gordon, Kaneel Huggins and Antwon Clarke. While all co-accused are currently incarcerated, Gordon was convicted for the offence of murder, while the other two accused were convicted for manslaughter.

Therefore, Simmons informed that two bundles had been passed from the British High Commissioner’s Office to the Office of the Attorney General in SVG on January 30, 2017, detailing depositions, and formally requesting the extradition of the fugitive (Francis). This bundle, passed on to the Inspector, included the sworn statements of the investigators in the UK, and the doctor who declared that Dhaye died from hemorrhaging as a result of a stab wound to the abdomen, among others.

Simmons was asked by Crown Prosecutor Karim Nelson, who was representing the crown, to give an overview of the case as presented in the bundle.Therefore, Simmons explained the alleged outline of what occurred leading up to the death of Dhaye.

Two different parties of friends, living in two different areas had headed to London on August 31, 2015, to partake in the Notting Hill Carnival in London. The deceased and his friends left where they were living in Slough, Berkshire by train, and Francis left High Wycombe with friends in a blue Vauxhall car.The two sides apparently met at the Carnival, some animosity in the air, because Gordon and the deceased had had a previous altercation because of an online posting.No fight would ensue at the Carnival, the police being present, but after the Carnival ended the fugitive and the co-accused persons did not seemingly go back to High Wycombe, but drove to Slough, Berkshire.

There they apparently waited, headlights off, for the deceased and his friends to return on train.When the friends arrived at the train station, they separated to go home, and the fugitive and the other accused persons allegedly followed the deceased in the Vauxhall.It was said that all occupants then exited the vehicle and stabbed Dhaye multiple times, before driving back to High Wycombe.Shortly after 12, at 12:09 a.m. on September 1, Dhaye was declared dead.Francis left England eight days later, on September 9, 2015 with SVG as his destination.

Browne-Matthias, after hearing submissions by Nelson on the acceptability of the evidence before the court, determined that Francis would be committed to custody to await return to the UK to sit trial for murder.Francis, who was not represented, did have two persons waiting outside the Serious Offences Court, one older woman in tears after hearing about his deportation, and a younger girl. The two women hugged and spoke to him for a short period of time.