Three men charged with causing the death of Lowman

The dust had not settled on the year that was 2011, before St. Vincent and the Grenadines recorded its first homicide for 2012.{{more}}

At about 3:40am, Chapmans, Georgetown resident Desmond Augustus Lowman succumbed to injuries sustained after he was allegedly tied up and thrown into a copper vat of boiling water.

The 25-year-old man, also known as ‘Junior’ was accused of killing a sheep in the Rabacca mountains on Friday December 23, by men who allegedly decided to ‘punish’ him before handing him over to police.

Lowman’s mother Ingrid Bristol, who visited SEARCHLIGHT on Tuesday, January 3, said that she is living in a daze since her son was attacked, and since his death the feeling has got worse.

“I don’t want another mother to feel to feel the burning in their tummy the way I feel, by the hands of these men.”

“I just wish that justice would prevail. I just hope that God could have his way and stop these men; what they set out to do is not right.”

Bristol told SEARCHLIGHT that during a visit to her son at the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital, he told her what happened to him on the fateful Friday morning.

“He said to me ‘Mommy, I am innocent.’”

“He said he went up to some lands up in Miss Janie River in Rabacca; and by the border of the lands there is wild yams growing up there.”

“He said he went on Thursday and got two sacks.”

“He said that a neighbor asked him to get ten dollars worth for her, so he went back on the Friday to dig some more.”

“He said while he was coming back down in the river, he heard a sheep lamb bawl. he said then he noticed that two lambs were lying next to their mother and he noticed the mother eyes were green so he know that it was dead.”

Bristol said that her son proceeded to the area where the owner of the sheep was, to inform him of what he had seen.

According to Bristol, her son said that two men who were with the owner accompanied him to area where the dead sheep lay, and when they arrived at the area, one of the men said that the whole scene seemed suspicious.

Lowman said the man asked him how come he didn’t see the dead animal on his way up the mountain, to which Lowman said he replied that he was not looking in that direction, but only saw it while he was coming back and heard the lamb crying.

“He say this man come with a sharp cutlass, scuffle him up at his neck with his jersey and put the cutlass by his neck and tell him if he say he went to dig yam he will cut off his head in the river,” Ingrid said.

“He said he could not do nothing more than stand there because it was he alone and it was four of them.”

Lowman told his mother that he was taken to a yard, where the owner of the animal said that he was going to call the police.

There, Lowman told his mother that the owner ordered the other men to cut a piece of rope and tie his hands behind his back.

“He said they tied him, and this fat man told the rest to bring him over to a copper where he was standing with water on the fire boiling.”

Bristol said that her son told her that the men initially tried to force his head into the water, but he resisted the attempts.

She said that her son said that the man then lifted him up and tossed him into the boiling water, then kept him in the yard until late evening, before calling the police, who took him to the Georgetown hospital. The 25-year-old man was then rushed to the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital in Kingstown, where he died.

The post mortem showed that Lowman died from respiratory distress.

Lowman was described by people who knew him as a quiet person, who had his moments of instability; to which his mother disclosed that he had suffered a nervous breakdown a few years ago.

“At times when he get sick, he would cuss and fret; but when he get better he would say ‘Mommy, I am sorry for what I said to you; forgive me’.”

“He would not handle what is not his… if he pass and see you have something and he want it, he will ask you for it.”

He was the third child born to his mother and first to his father. He had three brothers and three sisters.

One younger sister, Martha, who accompanied her mother to SEARCHLIGHT said that she was heartbroken over her brother’s death.

“He did not deserve to die like this,” she said.

Bristol said that the family hope to lay Lowman to rest on Sunday.

Meanwhile, three men were on Wednesday, January 4, remanded in custody, charged with causing the death of 25-year-old Desmond Lowman.

The men, Andre Mornix of South Union, Henley Byron and Desmond John both of Langley Park appeared at the Serious Offences Court on Wednesday and were not allowed to plea to the indictable charge. The matter was adjourned to April 30 for Preliminary Inquiry.(JJ)