Triangular love affair murder accused freed

Stories by: HAYDN HUGGINS

ABOUT19 years after truck driver Joshua ‘Cabbage’ Pompey was acquitted of a murder charge, a man who was subsequently charged with Pompey’s murder and other related offenses, was freed on all counts.

Hanif ‘Ghandi’ Forbes, 41year-old mason of Spring Village, Georgetown, was charged with murdering Pompey at O’Briens Village, Georgetown on January 22, 2022, discharging a loaded firearm with intent to injure, possession of a firearm without licenses, assaulting Pompey’s wife Lakeitha Harris-Pompey causing her bodily harm on January 21, 2022, and entering HarrisPompey’s home on the same date and stealing one bottle of Gonsalves Black Wine valued EC$30, one bottle of Pure Heaven non-alcoholic wine value EC$25, and one bottle of

Jamaican brandy valued EC$25.

Pompey’s body was found in his car next to his home at O’Brien Village in the early morning hours of January 22, 2022. He sustained a bullet wound to the head.

Forbes who had a sexual relationship with Pompey’s wife was subsequently arrested and charged.

However, Forbes walked free from the High Court on Tuesday after a 12-member Jury, comprised of eight women and four men, found him not guilty on all counts, following a trial which lasted about two weeks.

Speaking with THE VINENTIAN shortly after the acquittal, Forbes’ attorney Ronald Marks said, “Justice was served. It would have been frightening if the Jury had come back with a different verdict. This (verdict) has reassured my faith in the system. I walked an innocent man out of prison today, and I am satisfied”.

The Crown’s case relied heavily on the evidence of Harris-Pompey, the only witness for the Crown to testify seeing the unfolding of the events leading to the shooting death of Joshua Pompey around 12:05 a.m. on January 22, 2022. But Marks in his closing submissions argued that Harris-Pompey fabricated the story. Marks referenced the evidence of surgical pathologist Ronald Child who said Pompey was shot from the left side, in contrast to the evidence of Harris-Pompey who told the Court that Forbes was standing to the right side of the vehicle in which Pompey was shot. Marks also argued that she said she saw Pompey with a long gun but according to Dr. Child’s evidence, the entry wound was only 1.2 cm, which Marks said was more consistent with a small caliber gun. The lawyer added that no firearm or spent shells were recovered.

Marks also referred to the evidence of the accused who told the Court that Harris-Pompey had told him the father of her first child used to beat her, and she purchased a gun and told the child’s father that she would shoot him if he ever hit her again.

Forbes’ in his defense to the Court said, “We started out as friends and we became intimate. Some sex happened at the house and sometimes she would call me, and we would go to a house at Glen and have sex. I did not shoot ‘Cabbage’, and I did not beat her (Harris-Pompey) up”.

Murder victim’s wife admits: We both cheated

LAKEITHAHarris-Pompey, the wife of murder victim Joshua ‘Cabbage’ Pompey, was the only witness for the Crown to claim seeing the unfolding of the drama which led to the shooting death of her husband, around 12:05am on January 22, 2022.

Harris-Pompey told the Court, during the recent murder trial, that she had a sexual relationship with the accused Hanif ‘Ghandi’ Forbes who, on Tuesday, was acquitted of that murder and other related offenses.

She said she and Forbes were friends then they became lovers before she got married to JoshuaPompey in 2020, and her sexual relationship with Forbes continued even after she got married to Pompey.

She described her marriage as “on and off” because “her (husband) was seeing different people, and I was seeing Hanif Forbes.”

She said that she wanted to quit the marriage but she and her husband saw a counsellor, and he advised them to work things out. She said that she had told Forbes she was going to get married, and he told her she could do what she wanted. She said her relationship with Forbes ended around October 2021 because “he used to be acting up”.

Harris-Pompey spoke of an incident between the night of January 21, 2021 and the early morning of January 22, 2022, while her husband was not at home. The children were sleeping and she was watching movies. She recalled hearing something drop, and she got up to see what had happened.

“My white board fell. They were drinks on the table, and they were gone. It was a black wine, a Pure Heaven and a Jamaican Brandy. I saw Hanif putting the drinks through the burglar bars of the window. I saw his head and shoulder. He pulled the curtain to take the drinks off the table. I say Hanif, why are you removing ‘Cabbage’ drinks. He just walked away”, Harris-Pompey testified.

“I went after him and met him in the yard. I tell him give me the drinks. He start to choke me. I start to fist him off, and I got away from him and ran back into the house. He threw me down in the couch and start choking me. I flip over the couch, and I try to run out the kitchen, but could not make it”, Harris-Pompey added.

According to her, “Ghandi (Forbes) grabbed me the same time and start to beat me in my face. I began to scream and my kids woke up. I say ‘Ghandi’ you going to beat me up in front of the kids them, and I ran out the front door. I was frighten. I locked the door. It was around 11pm (January 21, 2021).

“I went into my bedroom, and looked out the window. I saw him (Forbes) walking fast going down the road, then I took my phone and called ‘Cabbage’. I told him that ‘Ghandi’ came into the yard, and took his drinks, and gone with them”.

Harris-Pompey said her husband said OK, and hung up, but while she was peeping through the window awaiting her husband’s arrival, she saw Forbes coming up the road with a gun in his hand.

“It (gun) was long and black. As he got closer he put the gun on a wall, and jumped over the wall to come in my yard, then he go by the window to the garage. I came out of the bedroom. I called ‘Cabbage’ to tell him (Pompey) don’t come up here, because Forbes was in the yard with a gun”.

Harris-Pompey said Forbes told her, “I go kill you and ‘Cabbage’ mudder –– today”. She said Forbes was pounding the gun in the house through a window for a short while. playing pool, then went home. He said he was at home playing games, and HarrisPompey kept messaging him. He said he never left the house again, and the following morning someone called him saying that Joshua Pompey was killed, and people were saying that he (Forbes) was the killer. Forbes called his mother Veronica John, and his son Duvani Williams, both of whom he lived with, to testify on his behalf.

Forbes, in response to questions from the Crown, said, “We were always having sex. She never told me she wanted to stop having sex with me because she was married. I did not kill ‘Cabbage’. I did not go in their house and remove drinks, and beat her up”, he insisted.

At this point, her husband arrived and came out of his car. She did not see where Forbes went as she had gone back to her bedroom window. She later saw Forbes coming from the direction of Dickson, and he pointed the gun at her husband. She added that Forbes also fired a bullet on the ground.

According to the woman her husband, who was already inside the house, wanted to go back outside and she told him not to because Forbes had a gun. But her husband insisted that he was going back outside to park his vehicle. She said she heard a loud explosion and when she peeped through the window, she saw her husband’s car reversing slowly and then it stopped. She said Forbes was pointing the gun to her husband’s car. She screamed repeatedly, and saw Forbes run up in a gap and disappeared.

The police whom she had called earlier returned the call, and she told them it looked like something happened to her husband. When she went down to the car she saw what appeared to be blood on her husband’s face, and he was unresponsive. She said it was after 12 midnight.

Under cross-examination by Forbes’ lawyer Ronald Marks, Harris-Pompey said she ended the relationship with Forbes because she wanted to spend more time with her children. She said she always knew her husband was cheating on her, and the only person she could have taken her problems to was Forbes. She could not remember when was the last time she had sex with Forbes, but said it was long before December, 2021.

Forbes said that on the evening of January 21, 2022, he was at a bar

On January 11, 2004, Pompey was freed of a murder charge, stemming from the shooting death of Wayde Durrant at Middle Street, Kingstown on June 11, 2003.

Fisherman Jailed For Murder

LEROY CUFFYis on his fifth day of a 25-year-plus prison sentence for the murder of his cousin and fellow villager Mandreca Soloman, and other related offenses. The 32-year-olf fisherman of Barrouallie was on Monday sentenced to 25 years, nine months, and one day for murdering the 28-year-old Soloman, who died from a gunshot wound on April 15, 2021, following a rum shop argument at Barrouallie.

Cuffy was also sentenced to ten years, three months and one day for possession of a firearm with intent to commit an offense; one year, three months, and one day for possession of an unlicensed firearm; and one year three months, and one day for possession of nine rounds of ammunition without a license.

The sentences handed down by Justice Brian Cottle at the High Court Criminal Assizes will run concurrently.

Cuffy had pleaded guilty to the charges at a previous sitting but sentencing was adjourned.

The facts showed that Soloman, a labourer, was shot following an argument with Cuffy at a shop in Barrouallie, during which Cuffy had told Soloman to wash his hands before partaking in an alcoholic drink Soloman had intended to share with him. Solomon had insisted that Cuffy wash his hands because he (Cuffy) was seen playing with a stray puppy.

Cuffy, who apparently became annoyed, left and returned with a gun which he used to shoot Soloman, following an exchange of words between them.