Magistrate rejects competency to stand trial report
After resting the matter for a few days before handing down a decision, Chief Magistrate, Collin John, has thrown out a competency to stand trial report relating to a psychiatric patient who was before the Serious Offences Court on charges related to possession of a modified firearm and ammunition. The chief magistrate also ordered that the accused man be returned to the Mental Health Centre (MHC) for an assessment to be done by a psychiatrist.
In the wake of the ruling, defense lawyer Grant Connell, concluded that if the powers that be don’t get serious about mental health issues in St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) then it is members of the public who will pay the price, sometimes with their lives.
Connell was commenting on Tuesday April 23, 2026, after the court threw out the competency to stand trial report written and signed off by doctors attached to the Mental Health Centre (MHC), the same day that this country recorded its 16th homicide for 2026, allegedly committed by a mentally unstable male.
The report regarding psychiatric patient Kesroy Williams, was submitted by the MHC. It came up for scrutiny after Connell took up, pro bono, the case in which Williams, a Belair resident, is charged that on February 6, 2026, he had a prohibited weapon- a modified .32 firearm and three rounds of .32 ammunition at his home.
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