The Tribune

By LAMECH JOHNSON

Tribune Staff Reporter

ljohnson@tribunemedia.net

A GRANDSON was arraigned in the magistrates’ court yesterday charged with murdering his 74-year-old grandmother.

Jonathan Bethel, 21, of Greenway Drive, appeared before Acting Chief Magistrate Joyanne Ferguson-Pratt on a charge of murder concerning the stabbing death of his grandmother, Vivian Johnson.

He was arraigned as relatives of the two stood outside the Nassau and South Street courts icomplex.

Bethel was not required to enter a plea to the charge due to its nature.

It was claimed that on October 12 he intentionally, and by means of unlawful harm, caused the death of his grandmother with whom he lived.

Police officers found her body at her Greenway Drive home off Mermaid Boulevard around 8.20 pm on that December day.

She was found on the floor of a bathroom at her residence with several stab wounds.

In yesterday’s arraignment, following the prosecution’s notice to fast-track the case to the Supreme Court for trial through a Voluntary Bill of Indictment, a complaint of brutality was filed by Bethel’s attorney, Dr Glendon Rolle.

Dr Rolle claimed that his client, while at the Central Detective Unit, was beaten about the chest and lower body. The attorney unbuttoned the top of his client’s plaid shirt and asked the magistrate to consider what he said were the blood stains visible underneath.

The magistrate said that while she did observe the stains, the court could not say how they got there.

However, she made a note of the complaint and granted the request for his client to be seen by a doctor.

He was remanded to Her Majesty’s Prison until completion of trial.

Outside of court, while being escorted by officers to a holding cell, Bethel refused to hold his head up when instructed to by police.

His attorney and his relatives told him he ‘didn’t have to’ hold his head up for the media if he didn’t want to.

They were accused of obstructing justice and were warned they would be arrested if they continued to do so.

Dr Rolle told The Tribune his client ‘had rights too’.

“The officer threatened to arrest me for obstruction of justice for advising my client he has a right not to hold his head up,” said Dr Rolle.

“And of course, he put his hands around his throat in an attempt to raise his head. Well it’s all recorded during the walkthrough.

“As Bahamians, we all have rights and those rights ought to be adhered to. There’s no place in the law books of this country that one must hold up his head. The presumption of innocence is still there and you are protected and that is one that must stand.”

Dr Rolle claimed blood on his client’s shirt was received at CDU and was not there during his counsel with the 21-year-old, who had worn the same shirt, he said.

Bethel is scheduled to reappear in court on January 17, 2014 where the VBI is scheduled to be served.