Triple tragedy befalls Clarendon mother - One son dies in road accident, second shot dead, and third locked up without bail
Published:Monday | January 18, 2021 | 12:12 AMBarbara Gayle/Contributor
A Clarendon woman who was still coming to terms with the death of her two sons who died in tragic circumstances, was plunged into more grief after her third son, 22 -year-old son Lesbert Smith was locked up more than three years without any bail application being made for him.
‘I cry night and day because I cannot understand how so many tragedies can befall me,” Viola Nugent told The Gleaner, as she used a towel to dry her tears.
She said one of her sons died in a motor vehicle accident in Portmore, St Catherine, seven years ago. Tragedy struck again for Nugent on August 20, 2017, when her 26-year-old son, Paul Wallace, was shot dead by gunmen while riding his motorcycle in St Catherine.
As she was overcoming the loss of her two sons, tragedy struck Nugent again, when her third son was arrested.
MISFORTUNE
“I thought that was the end of my misfortune and pain, but on August 28, 2017, my son Lesbert Smith was shot in the shoulder and hand by gunmen while he was in Porus, Manchester, “ she recalled. “He was taken to hospital for treatment and while there, the police came and took him into custody.
“Lesbert was one month away from his 18th birthday when the police detained him, and that is now my greatest misery and distress,” she said.
Nugent cannot understand why her son has not been given bail or a date set for the hearing of his case.
‘This can never be justice and I need answers for what is being done to my son,” she said. “Right now, my son’s physical and mental health are failing and he has developed asthma since in custody in one of the island’s prisons.”
Nugent is contemplating taking her son’s case to the Constitutional Court to get an order that his right to be tried within a reasonable time is being violated.
Attorney-at-law Earl Hamilton, who was retained recently to represent Smith, told The Gleaner that the case is scheduled to be mentioned later this month and he will be making a bail application.
Hamilton said Smith is charged with misprision of felony contrary to common law, and accessory before the fact to murder.