Young man cleared of murder charge in sword thrusting case

Jason Isaacs’ mother did not believe it when she heard her son’s voice over the phone saying, “I’m coming home.” It was his lawyer Kay Bacchus-Baptiste who reassured her that it was true, “We won the case.”

Minutes before, the court had told Isaacs he was free to go, after Bacchus-Baptiste led the murder accused to victory in a case where he had been charged with causing the death of his neighbour by thrusting a sword into his chest.

Isaacs, now 27, had been charged that on July 27 2019 at Campden Park, with malice aforethought, he caused the death of Michael Browne, 36 of Mahoe of Campden Park, by an unlawful act.

The prosecution’s case, which was led by Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Karim Nelson was that Browne and Isaacs were having a heated argument with each other from near their respective homes. Isaacs then went for a sword, walked up to Browne’s house then killed him by plunging a sword into his chest.

He argued that “…When Isaacs plunged that sword into Michael…, [Isaacs] was not acting in self defence,” but it was deliberately done with the intention to kill or at the very least cause serious harm.” The prosecution further said that when Isaacs had finished stabbing Browne, Isaacs took his sword and “strolled away like it was nothing.”

But, having been convicted for damage to property on three different occasions; possession of cannabis on three occasions; taking a motorcar without the permission of the owner; committing indecent assault against a woman by feeling her vagina and breast; having two convictions of burglary; being in possession of a controlled drug on three difference occasions; having two convictions for wounding including stabbing a female in her eye with a pair of scissors; the deputy DPP admitted that based on his past, Browne was a “horrible” person, but that was no grounds to kill a man.

But Bacchus-Baptiste rebutted in her final submissions to the jury that the matter was “not as simple as the prosecution made it seem,” and that “the prosecution will have you believe that we are saying that [because] Michael Browne was a bad man, it is okay to kill him.”

She reassured the jury that this was not the case.

In fact, Bacchus-Baptiste was displeased that when the trial began, the prosecution only put forward Browne’s convictions that were not very serious, “but the grievous ones,” they chose to leave out. She said that it was not until she did some digging that she found that Browne had been convicted 15 times.

She further debunked the prosecution’s case, and said that when Isaacs got to the house, he said to himself, as stated in his police statement, “Man let me get out of here” before he ends up in trouble. However, as he was turning to leave, Browne leaped at him with a pair of scissors and screwdriver which caused Isaacs to turn around and raise his sword in reflex and self defence, resulting in Browne impaling himself on the sword.

On the day of Browne’s death, Bacchus-Baptiste said that “This dangerous man [Michael Browne] for over an hour” threatened to kill Jason and his family “one by one”, and accused Isaacs and his brother of “brushing” their mother. In fact, Bacchus-Baptiste said that Browne had a habit of doing this.

In fact, she said at one point, Browne attempted to rape Isaacs’ mother, and always asked her for sex. At night, Browne would make Isaacs’ mother uncomfortable by holding her hand as she passed by, so much so that she had to ask her boss to change her shift.

And two weeks before the incident, Browne ambushed Isaacs and stabbed him on his side and hand while he was walking with his brother, then went about proclaiming, “I’ll stab you up, you lucky you ain’t dead.”

Bacchus-Baptiste reminded the jury that Isaacs is of good character and has no previous convictions, but said it was “The last straw that breaks the camel’s back,” that made Isaacs go for the sword to warn Browne to leave his family alone; and that if they chose to dismiss her argument of self defence, to consider her defence of provocation.

After the verdicts of not guilty of murder and not guilty of manslaughter were handed down, Bacchus-Baptiste told SEARCHLIGHT that she is “truly happy” with the verdict.

“I’m a mother, and I really felt his pain, I felt his mother’s pain and I truly believed that this was just a case of him trying to defend his family, so I’m just happy how it ended,” she said, adding that she hopes Isaacs will learn from this experience and never come before the court again.

The trial, which lasted for one week was heard by a 12-member mixed jury and culminated on Wednesday, at High Court #1 where Justice Brian Cottle presides. The crown’s case was led by the Deputy DPP with the assistance of Crown Counsel Maria Jackson Richards.