2 May 2018
Jamaica: A convicted killer who cut his girlfriend’s throat said he was pushed over the edge by her
By Jamaica Observer
(JAMAICA OBSERVER) – A convicted killer who cut his girlfriend’s throat on Christmas Day in St Thomas in 2016, said he was pushed over the edge by her infidelity.
According to the 29-year-old salesman, her unfaithfulness caused him great misery and resulted in him being the “laughing stock” of his community.
Odain Keyes, who had spent months crying and had reportedly begged his girlfriend, repeatedly, to either leave him alone or end her affair with her lover, said through his lawyer that the “final straw” was on Christmas Day after she went to dinner with her parents and lover then forced her way inside his home.
“It was a daily recipe for community members to see him coming home from work and laughing at him,” Keyes’ lawyer, Horace Grey. said.
Keyes, who detailed his misery at his sentencing in the St Thomas Home Circuit Court last Friday, through his attorney, was sentenced to 14 years in prison for manslaughter.
Keyes had pleaded guilty to murder in relation to the machete killing of 19-year-old Tashoy Barrett, but after his lawyer relayed the reasons behind the murder, Justice Carol Lawrence said she could not sentence him on a murder charge since he was provoked. He was therefore sentenced on the lesser charge of manslaughter, and the prosecution confirmed that provocation had arisen in their case.
Before the sentence was passed, Grey told the court that although Barrett lived with her parents, she spent most of her time at Keyes’ home and that he was responsible for her daily maintenance, which included helping to pay her school fees.
The lawyer said Keyes, who was working as a construction worker when the relationship started, switched careers and became a salesman, selling dairy products, so that he could better care for his girlfriend.
However, he said Keyes later learnt of his girlfriend’s infidelity after residents started talking.
Additionally, Grey said while Keyes was out working in the days, his home became the meeting place for Barrett and her lover.
“He spoke to her about it but it remained until he became the laughing stock of the community. Everybody would be passing remarks and laughing,” Grey said.
The lawyer said his client went to Barrett’s parents to ask them to speak to their daughter, but they, too, laughed at him.
He also told the court that a friend of Keyes’ competitor would oftentimes mock him by telling him what went on between his girlfriend and her lover, while the lover would drive past him and mockingly tell him that he was going for his girlfriend.
According to Grey, his client spent most of his time crying.
“In all the woes that they had, he never hurt her, his solution was to cry,” the lawyer said.
However, he said on the day of the incident, he had heard that Barrett was going out with her lover and her parents. He said his client was at home in his bed, after locking his door, when he heard the motor vehicle with Barrett’s parents and her lover aboard, as they dropped her off at his home.
Grey said his client heard her knocking and refused to let her in, but she used a back door to gain access to the house and tried to “make much” of him.
“He said he was still crying and he asked her to leave but she did not want to leave,” Grey said.
The lawyer said his client remembered that he had a machete that Barrett had brought to the house and he went for it to get her out. However, he said she was not fazed and kept coming at him.
Grey said his client started swinging the machete, and neither he nor Barrett knew when it caught her until he saw blood spewing from Barrett’s neck.
When Keyes realised what had happened, he ran off into bushes. He eventually fled to Clarendon but returned a week later and surrendered to the police as he was very remorseful, the lawyer added.
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