Shopkeeper charged with murder of Ellis

Had he been alive today, Redemption Sharpes resident Basil Ellis would be celebrating his 38th birthday.{{more}}

Instead, family members are finalizing funeral arrangements for the man who succumbed to a knife wound to his lower abdomen, shortly after being stabbed following an argument just outside Little Tokyo on Saturday, August 6.

The plans that the father of 14 and five year old daughters and a seven year old son, and his fiancée of one year had would have been accomplished, had he, according to girlfriend Vaness Douglas, continued to avoid the confrontation.

“He was trying to walk away, because he keep saying that morning that he has the children them to get ready for school.”

“It was something that could have been avoided, but I think at the spur of the moment, these things happen.”

Douglas, who was present when Ellis, also known as ‘Sick Youth’, was attacked, told SEARCHLIGHT about the final moments she saw him alive.

“It took place about minutes to seven and I had just finished making grocery. I went over to where he was liming in Tokyo… then I went to the lotto booth to buy a ‘3D’.”

According to Douglas, while she stood with her back to Ellis, an argument started between him and another man whom she recognized as an acquaintance of her boyfriend.

“….He (Ellis) walk away and come at the booth next to me; that’s when the young man pull out this long knife. He went up into Basil face. Basil tried to push him off because he had the knife. Then he fling a stab, but it did not catch Basil, so Basil now turn away again.”

The situation took a turn for the worse when Ellis, who was warned by Douglas not to turn his back on the attacker, pelted a Guinness bottle that he had in his hand at the man.

“I can’t tell if the bottle catch him, but he rush up to Basil and that’s when he stabbed him.”

“Basil didn’t know he got the stab and then he walk off, but then he started to run, and that is when he fell down right outside Tokyo.”

Douglas, a Community Health Aid attached to the Sion Hill Clinic, said that when she and others realized what had happened, they rushed the injured man to the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital.

She said she hurried to their Bottom Sharpes home to collect items for Ellis for his stay at the hospital, but when she returned shortly after, she was told by one of Ellis’ friends that ‘Basil gone.’

The mother of three sons of her own said that the tragedy comes at a time when Ellis’ children had recently lost their mother due to illness, and when the once ‘miserable’ Ellis was trying to live a better life for them.

“He had come a long way. Back in his time, if that gentleman had come there he wouldn’t had get a chance to do that. He changed because of his children now that they getting older, so he decided that he wanted to settle down.”

“He was even talking about getting married. The other day I heard him saying he want to change his life and go to church. Lately, he used to be listening to the Christian (radio) station and sing and things like that.”

Douglas said that the death of her mate should not have happened, seeing that both men involved were friends and could have settled the matter differently.

Lenroy Haynes, a 29-year-old shopkeeper of Largo Heights, was on Tuesday August 9, charged with Ellis’ death and is due to return to court for a hearing date on January 11th, 2012.

He is being represented by Lawyer Stephen Williams.

Meanwhile, Douglas indicated that although she and Ellis were together for twelve short months, she will always have fond memories of their time together.

“I will remember him as a real nice, wonderful guy. He was a fun guy to be with. Even though we would have our little bassa bassa and I don’t want to speak to him for about a day or two, he would come and he would hug me up and sit in my lap and he would say things like ‘sorry’, if he know he is wrong.

Ellis is expected to be laid to rest this Sunday.