By NICO SCAVELLA
Tribune Staff Reporter
nscavella@tribunemedia.net
A MAN sentenced to almost 20 years in prison for aiding the person responsible for killing the teenage son of convicted drug traffickers Dwight and Keva Major yesterday said he feels like "giving up" for being imprisoned for a crime he insist he had no involvement in.
Kervin Neely had appeared before appellate Justices Jon Isaacs, Roy Jones and acting Justice Milton Evans seeking more time in which to appeal his 18-year sentence for the role he played in aiding the man responsible for the June 1, 2014 killing of 17-year-old Enrico Major.
However, after the matter was adjourned due to his attorney Stanley Rolle not being fully prepared to proceed on the extension of time application, Neely told the court he is an "innocent" person sitting in prison for some four years to date for a crime he has "no knowledge" of or "no dealings with".
Neely also said it is "hard" living life as an inmate at the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services, stressing he has been made to endure threats while incarcerated and, based on that, he presently feels like giving up.
Counsel
However, Justice Evans told Neely the court can only hear the matter if and when counsel is ready to proceed. Justice Isaacs, meanwhile, admonished Neely not to give up, though he may be strongly tempted to do so.
The matter was subsequently adjourned to June 6.
Major was killed weeks before his high school graduation.
He was walking south on Baillou Hill Road near SC McPherson Junior High School when he was confronted and stabbed.
Dr Caryn Sands, a pathologist, testified during the trial that Major died of blood loss from the almost three-inch deep stab wound through his rib cage, which had severed an artery in his heart.
She said that in her experience with such wounds, a person receiving that kind of injury would lose blood quickly because of a faster heartbeat as a result of activity and/or anxiety.
The Crown's case was that on the date in question, Neely and Dwayne Peter Lockhart chased Major and Ken Johnson down Blue Hill Road South where Lockhart exited the vehicle being driven by Neely and gave further chase to Major behind a building.
It was there that Lockhart stabbed Major in the back which resulted in his death.
The evidence of Johnson, who managed to escape, was that when Lockhart exited the vehicle, Neely also left the vehicle and went to the area where Lockhart and Major went. Johnson also said he saw both Neely and Lockhart leave that area together and leave in Neely's vehicle.
Lockhart, prior to the commencement of his trial, pleaded guilty to murdering Major and is currently serving a 24-year sentence after a deduction of 1/3 for his early plea.
Car
Neely, meanwhile, denied any involvement in Major's stabbing death. He insisted the only thing he did on the day in question was give Lockhart a ride to dead end corner near Lockhart's home, and that he never left his car.
Nonetheless, Neely maintained in the process of giving Lockhart a ride, the latter jumped out of the vehicle and ran after some boys who had chased him earlier, and that he returned with a knife in hand.
Nonetheless, on March 30, 2015, a Supreme Court jury unanimously found Neely guilty of the single charge of abetment to murder he was charged with in connection with Major's death.
Justice Bernard Turner subsequently sentenced him to 18 years in prison for the crime, finding that such a sentence was an appropriate one when taking all of the circumstances of Neely's case into consideration.
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