Damaged for life

Danielle Rowe’s teenage sister, who has slashed her wrist four times since her sister’s gruesome murder, wakes up every day wishing to die, just so she can be with her beloved sibling.

“Every day mi look mi just a see mi lifeless sister body. Mi a see har a bleed breda, and mi think bout how much she did a bleed when har throat cut. It mash mi up. It mash mi up wicked,” said the teary-eyed male registrar who broke down in tears and had to pause, while reading Alicia Johnson’s portion of the victim’s impact statement.

“It mek mi even a pree fi harm miself fi deh wey she deh. Every day mi get up mi jus a say mi waa dead. Mi just waa deh which part mi sister deh.”

The devastating impact of Rowe’s murder on her immediate family was detailed in an emotionally charged sentencing hearing which also moved probation officers to tears yesterday in the Supreme Court where convicted child killer Kayodi Satchell was further remanded until December 20, to hear her fate.

ACTED OUT OF FRUSTRATION

The tearful and contrite 32-year-old dental assistant, who had pleaded guilty to murder and child stealing, through her lawyer Pierre Rogers, said she committed the tragic act out of frustration arising from not getting any help to prosecute Rowe’s father, from whom she allegedly contracted HIV.

The second-grade Braeton Primary and Infant School student was abducted from the St Catherine school on June 8 last year and was later seen that day with her throat slashed on Roosevelt Avenue in St Andrew.

Alicia, during her statement, shared that she last saw her sister alive on the day she was abducted after Rowe begged her to follow her to school. The teenager also reported that her six-year-old brother has also been left traumatised and is afraid to venture out by himself and has been asking for his sister daily.

“You know how it feels fi see somebody wey yuh love lifeless in front a yuh. A nuh like say we inna nuh foolishness wid nobody,” she said.

According to the teenager, she too is afraid and is scared to leave her home to socialise or to get close to other persons out of fear of losing them too.

“Mi a tell yuh all a dis jus mash up mi meds. It damage mi fi life,” she said.

Her mother, Sudiene Mason, who wept periodically throughout the proceedings, along with Alicia, said in her portion of the statement that it has been hard for her as Danielle was the child with whom she shared the closest bond.

“Some days I just cry because I feel like I can’t go on,” the mother shared. “I can never hold her ever again.”

The court heard that the now depressed mother visits her daughter’s graveside every Sunday and cries and vents.

“I think about what Nana went through and I played it out in my mind over and over again just to try and figure out what really happened ... and I wonder at which point she realised she was in danger,” the mother said.

She shared that her teenage daughter has slashed her wrist four times since Rowe’s death and that her son has stopped doing well in school.

MORE TO COPE

The mother, who said she had to leave her job due to depression, also pointed out that although the family received counselling, they still require more to cope.

According to her, there is no comfort in the way her child was killed and no punishment that is meted out to her killer will compare to the immense pain that the family is experiencing.

Meanwhile, Rogers in his plea-in-mitigation before Justice Carolyn Tie-Powell, while describing his client’s action as a “tragic mistake”, indicated that she has regretted the pain caused to the family and proposed that Satchell be given a 20-25 per cent discount for her early plea and a pre-parole sentence of about 28 years after the discount and the pretrial remand deduction.

Satchell was observed turning around while in the dock to whisper “I am sorry” to both Alicia and her mother.

Rogers disclosed that his client was in a “stormy relationship” with Rowe’s father whom he said allegedly advised his client in a voicemail that “if yuh know wa gud fi yuh, yuh go test yuself fi HIV”.

He said his client sought the help of the authorities to have the man prosecuted for what she thought was a conscious decision to move the virus around and acted out of frustration after receiving no help.

Rogers said his client also indicated that she did not steal the child away to kill her; instead, it was a desperate attempt to get attention from the father.

While declaring that the murder was not premeditated, Rogers said his client’s “frustration” cannot account for the taking of the child’s life and that a strong message must be sent to the society that taking of an innocent life is wrong.

At the same time, he asked the court to consider the “peculiar factors which were operating in Satchell’s life at the time, including the loss of her job, her home, her relationship and the loss of her own child two months into her pregnancy and that she was diagnosed with adjustment disorder.

The lawyer said somewhere in his client’s mind she thought “child for a child” but now knows that that was wrong.

“She acted in a manner that caused hurt while she too was hurting.

“She did something wrong and she deserved to be punished but she remains a human, she remains somebody worthy of care,” said Rogers while emphasising that Satchell can be rehabilitated and has taken the first step with her obvious remorse.

Attorney-at-law Donnovan Collins also represents Rowe while attorney-at-law Matthew Hyatt is watching the proceedings for the family.

tanesha.mundle@gleanerjm.com