Man gets less than 7 years for cutting throat of Jamaican wife in BVI

Man gets less than 7 years for cutting throat of Jamaican wife in BVI

July 23, 2019 0 By Horace Mills

A judge in the British Virgin Islands (BVI) has sentenced to six-and-a-half years imprisonment, a man who cut the throat of his Jamaican wife in the presence of two children.

Sherika Nelson, a 27-year-old hairdresser at the time she was butchered, was laid to rest in Jamaica. She did not live in the BVI for long.

Her security guard husband, Lennox Da Silva, is a native of St Vincent and the Grenadines who lived in the BVI for almost four decades.

The two got married some time after the man, while spending time at Nelson’s home in Jamaica, was shot and wounded during what Jamaican police said was a robbery attempt. That shooting took place in April 2014 in the Old Pasley area of Palmers Cross, Clarendon.

After Nelson joined her husband in the BVI, he started to accuse her of cheating with two other men. He also claimed that she got pregnant for one of the men and committed abortion. Nelson’s friends however said the men only provided transportation services.

On 10 June 2017, during a heated argument, Nelson, who is pictured above, started to pack her belongings to leave the matrimonial home.

That’s when her husband used an 18-inch machete-type knife to cut her throat.

He later claimed that ‘a feeling came over him’, adding that Nelson told him that he should have been shot dead in Jamaica – referring to the aforementioned shooting incident.

The man initially was charged with murder, but he pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter.

Justice Ann-Marie Smith, in handing down sentence this month, reportedly said the mitigating factors are that the killer has no previous conviction, he pleaded guilty early, he has been showing remorse and ‘exemplary behaviour’ in custody, and he was provoked.

The sentence of six-and-a-half years, in the meantime, is retroactive, meaning that it includes the time Da Silva spent on remand since his arrest on the day of the crime.

According to BVI Platinum News, Principal Crown Counsel Tiffany Scatliffe-Esprit, in her final arguments prior to the sentencing, suggested a sentence of 8 to 10 years imprisonment.


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