Tuesday, September 17, 2024

3 THE STAR NEWS • Tuesday, September 17, 2024 @JamaicaStar www.facebook.com/JamaicaStar • www.jamaica-star.com TIFFANY TAYLOR STAR Writer F our people were discharged of criminal proceedings against them on Monday, following allegations that they ganged up on and beat a 17-year-old over the use of a community pipe. ”Don’t feel like unnu ‘buss the case’ and that unnu go brag say unnu beat up girl. The complainant explained that the pipe was the source of the conflict and that she wanted the matter to end,” Senior Parish Judge Sanchia Burrell said. Her comments were directed at Natasha Green, Shanika Francis, Sheldon Morgan and Kerry-Ann Wilson who were admonished and discharged from the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court. Green, Morgan and Wilson were slapped with assault occasioning actual bodily harm charges, while Francis faced charges of unlawful wounding and assault occasioning actual bodily harm. It was shared that on August 16, the complainant was at her mother’s stall when she was attacked by Francis. ”Just so? What is the cause of it? She just get up and attack her just like that? There must have been a reason. Don’t say it [the allegations] like that because it make the person sound like dem mad,” Burrell indicated to the prosecutor. ”Your Honour, I don’t know how I [end] up here. I was at work when I get a call that police going [to] charge me,” Green informed the judge. “Your Honour, I came downstairs and saw Francis and tell her to stop,” Wilson added as an explanation, which was also proffered by Morgan. But the complainant’s mother clarified the cause of the melee, explaining that she has a standpipe by her home that is utilised by the community. ”Your Honour, I don’t know why me and dem stop talk, but it coming from that. I have no problem with them using the pipe, but when the pipe on, it run down the road and wet up my stall. All me a ask is that them turn off the pipe good when dem done use it,” the complainant’s mother said. ”That sounds fair enough, especially since you all are not paying for the water. So we not going to use the pipe again and mess up the place?” “No Your Honour,” the defendants replied. Green, Francis, Morgan and Wilson were subsequently discharged from the court, after they agreed to keep the peace. Residents fight over community pipe ROCHELLE CLAYTON Staff Reporter I n a gut-wrenching story of forgiveness and grief, Stacey-Ann Dunkley, the mother of 14-year-old Raniel Plummer, is opening up about the devastating loss of her son, who was fatally stabbed outside Irwin High School in St James earlier this year. The boy accused of the crime was freed of all charges, leaving Dunkley grappling with unimaginable pain. “He’s a child. I forgive him and I love him,” she said, her voice filled with emotion. “I hope that he makes something good of his life,” Dunkley said. The St James Family Court yesterday threw out the case against the 14-year-old accused of killing her child. The boy was initially charged with murder after Plummer was stabbed in the chest outside their school in Granville, St James, on April 17. Police reports indicate that Plummer had a confrontation with a schoolmate earlier in the day, and later, he was attacked by the same student and a group of boys. During the brawl, a knife was used to fatally stab Plummer. He was rushed to the hospital but died while being treated. Despite the tragic outcome, Dunkley revealed she still prays for the boy who allegedly took her son’s life. “Every day mi pray. I pray for his mother, and I pray for his father,” she said. Plummer was Dunkley’s middle child, and their bond was incredibly close. His death has left a void in their family that she fears will never be filled. “I love my son unconditionally and he loved me. He loved his brother and sister. Even though we are poor, we had a very good relationship. I miss him so much. Sometimes I think I’m going to die from a broken heart. I think my heart is broken in a way that it cannot be fixed.” “It hurts so much,” she added. Dunkley believes her son’s kind nature may have contributed to his tragic death. She raised him to be a peacemaker, and she fears that his unwillingness to engage in violence led to his fatal encounter. “Mi born inna Jamaica and I see these things all the time and to know that it reached me? Sometimes mi blame myself for all the good things mi instill inna my children. Maybe if I had told my son to [be violent], he would have been the one getting away with this. He wouldn’t have been the one buried around my back door,” she told T HE STAR . Trying to cope with the loss, Dunkley said she finds some solace in visiting her son’s grave but admits that the pain is still overwhelming. “I just came from over his grave because I just spread his shirt on it. I know it’s done now, so I’m leaving it to God.” “Mi cya eat. Mi cya sleep. Mi cya think. Mi cya do anything. If mi son did dead by COVID, mi would feel better. If him did drop down and dead on a football field, mi would feel better but to know that another person stabbed and killed him? You can’t just take away people’s life like that. Mi feel some pain inna my belly and my heart. To tell you the truth, I don’t know how mi nuh dead already,” Dunkley bemoaned. In the meantime, attorney-at-law Maurice McCurdy, who represented the accused schoolboy, expressed sympathies to Plummer’s grieving family. “Though the defence is pleased that the court found favour with our submissions in law, there is nothing to celebrate about this case. A loss of a child is a major blow to any nation. It has never been lost on us that a family is grieving,” McCurdy said. Forgiveness and pain Mother of murdered schoolboy opens up about son’s death A mourning Stacy-Ann Dunkley wears the uniform shirt of her son Raniel Plummer, while displaying his photo. A shley A nguin Plummer A shley A nguin