Barrouallie bus conductor charged with murder of contractor

A ‘Bagga’ youth has appeared in court, charged with the murder of a man who died last weekend after sustaining multiple stab wounds to his body.

Jevonte John, a 21 year old bus conductor appeared at the Serious Offences Court before Senior Magistrate, Colin John, on October 14, 2024, where he was charged that on Friday, October 11, 2024, at Barrouallie, with malice aforethought, he caused the death of Jeffon Junior Norton, a 42 year old contractor of Barrouallie by an unlawful act.

The Senior Magistrate informed the accused that he was not required to plea to the indictable offence and bail is not open to him. John’s lawyer, Grant Connell told the court that a Preliminary Inquiry “(PI) is not a road I choose to walk any more”, and that he wanted to do a paper committal.

Connell said that John was interviewed twice in relation to the matter and has been in custody since the date of the offence. However Norton’s postmortem is incomplete.

“At this juncture, we don’t know the cause of death,” he told the court. Connell asked what would happen if it’s revealed that Norton’s cause of death was Aneurysm.

Connell said that he does not know when the postmortem will be done, or if the police intend to do it. Prosecutor, Renrick Cato, told the court that the postmortem had already been scheduled. He added that at least 14 witnesses will be testifying in the matter.

The accused will reappear in court on Thursday, October 17, 2024. Family members and loved ones were brought to tears as they gave words of encouragement to John while he was waiting to be led away to prison.

Norton was killed on October 11, 2024 in his home town Barrouallie, after sustaining multiple stab wounds to his body. The incident reportedly occurred in the vicinity of the Anglican Church in Barrouallie.