IRWIN, St James – Detectives were up to last evening working feverishly to apprehend the gunmen who robbed and killed 54-year-old Eulis Jones Hamilton, mother of Jamaica Observer reporter Simone Morgan.
Hamilton was shot in the head Wednesday evening by one of about four gunmen who invaded her home and robbed her of cash amounting to approximately $200,000.
According to Lyrol Winn, spouse of the deceased, the incident happened shortly after he and his 12-year-old grandson returned from a grocery shop where they had gone to purchase bottled water.
“I walked at the back and she (Hamilton) let me in and I put down the water. Just as I stepped back and held on to the grille to lock it, a man from outside ‘jook’ mi with a gun and tell mi to step back inside the house and don’t look at him,” a grieving Winn told reporters.
He related that his grandson walked into the armed intruders, who placed them both to lie down on the floor. The attackers then warned Winn and his grandson not to look at their faces.
“Lying on the ground, one of them took off my hat and put it over my face and seh ‘don’t even take a glimpse at me’. Mi lying down there, dem go through mi pocket, take out everything, including telephone, money and so forth,” he recounted, adding that the men told his grandson that he was too young to die.
“Only one man first pounced and after him come in, the rest come in. I heard four different voices,” Winn said.
The armed invaders then went to where Hamilton was and cleaned a safe that contained money she had earlier collected from tenants who occupy three apartments on the premises.
Still not satisfied, the burglars gun-butted the woman after they ordered her to empty a drawer in which they thought more cash was hidden.
“One took mi from the kitchen and carried mi in to the passage near where the money was kept and mi hear mi wife bawl out and say ‘why you lick mi inna mi face with the gun fah and mi give you all of the money?” Winn recalled. “And when they opened the draw and saw that there was no more money, one said ‘come we cut’. Then they stepped out.”
Winn said as the group of men was about to leave, one of them ordered his spouse’s killing.
“When them reach the back door mi hear one of them seh, ‘put a shot in her [expletive] head’. Mi hear a foot coming in back in the house and [hear a voice] seh don’t move, boy, stay same place; and him step past me and me hear an explosion and him jump back over me and run out,” he recounted.
“A deh so now mi get up. And mi see her (Hamilton) lie down and me say ‘Mummy! Mummy! and then mi just see the blood a flow out of her head back and mi realise seh she gone lef’ wi,” he added.
Hamilton’s only surviving child, Observer reporter Simone Morgan, was a picture of grief yesterday as she remembered her mother as being very protective.
“She was a lady, she was one of the quietest persons I know; maybe too quiet. She was very, very mild-tempered,” a teary-eyed Morgan said.
“And then she calls me like 20 times for the day and ask, ‘Simone, yuh all right, yuh eat? What time you going home? Call me when you reach home’. Because I am her only child; she lost my sister several years ago. She died naturally. She was very protective of me,” Morgan said.
Both Morgan and Winn recalled that Hamilton rarely left the house.
“She doesn’t go anywhere, unless she going to the doctor. Unless it’s an appointment or something. She just doesn’t go out. She stays home and finds everything in the house to do,” Morgan remembered.
Winn, meanwhile, echoed his stepdaughter’s sentiments while describing his spouse as warm and loving,
“She does not leave the house and go anywhere at all. Before so, she keep washing every day. It [her death] surprised everybody because the only time they see her is when she reads the water meters on the premises daily,” he told the Observer.
omfgee man dem rob de lady dem nay haffi kill har …dis pass sad enuh man,why thou
r.i.p Ms.Hamilton
Dat is no sad. I sounds like she was di only one who saw their faces.
Yes but why not cover your face!! You get what you came for and still kill the lady, I hope they find who did it! Heartless!!!
I meant so sad
Rip lady!!! God help us all! These senseless crime going on in JA mek even fear going home. It’s like nobody is safe, I hope rot in hell f
Pardon the typos my phone is crazy.
All dem deserve di death penalty cause dat a real wickedness.
RIP Ms Eulis, my condolence tuh di family. Dis is ah senseless act. Lord have mercy!
People might think this is a random crime, but I wouldn’t be surprise if it was one of the Tenants in that yard that set up this whole robbery or have her killed to make it look like a robbery. They are that wicked. They is always Tenant-Landlord dispute in these yard, with lot of bad blood.
I ting dem jus follow di husband home fi di money and kill har because she could identify dem. I looks like she may of looked at dem before dem get the chance fi tell har not to look like dem told di husband.
What if a the husband set it up an a gwane line him a victim. How the husband feel jook an nuh see a who jook him, a person natural reaction would be to spin around.
my theory too. how him so lucky?
This reeks of a setup, be it husband or tenant, reporter go n investigate yuh madda’s death please
Wah go done unnu nuh jump and seh a kartel unnu dog shit
unno who ? I have a question / statement
afta we nuh membah kartel :ngakak afta we nuh membah kartel
A wat do that shit house a talk bout, wat a go done unun nuh sey a Kartel who the f*k remember him! !!
dow mek no sense..none what so ever..so dem walk pass di man an go kill him wife? mek no sense…set up…dem need some real crime scene investigators pan dis one
On TVJ the husband said one of the robbers said that the woman was an obeah woman and him no want she obeah them. That’s when they went in back and shot her in the head..
Very suspicious!!!!The husband story sounds fishy.
Is he officially a husband or a common law husband. His story keeps changing. I don’t buy it…these killers are not going to step over this man body twice and not kill him…no way!
OMG. I’m glad I’m not the only one to see that this husband story doesn’t add up. Which killer gwine tun back pass a man, shot de wife and step back over the man an leave de man unharmed. There are many inconsistencies and illogical actions in his version of events. De husband set up de murder. Need to find the motive, insurance, primary beneficiary of house and bank account possibly.
Met, I just read this story. The more I read this is the more I am convinced that the husband set up this murder. His story seems too rehearsed and focused on not seeing any faces.
Met, he must have seen the face of at least one person, the man who jook him as he was locking the grill. If him locking de grill he is facing the man who jook him. Him cyaan lock grill wid him back turn.
Him quick fi seh how a man put him hat over him face as he is laying down. If him laying down how dem fi put hat over him face, unless he was laying down on his back and dat nuh mek nuh sense.
Considering de circumstances, he is too detailed wid feem recollection of events. Can tell everyting except him nuh si nuh face but can identify four voices. Him hear man seh put a shot inna har head an him juss lay dung deh an nuh seh nutten, beg and plead fi him wife. And, him lay dung deh an mek man step over him and leff afta him hear explosion.
KMT, da husband story nuh mek nuh sense. Dem fi investigate him. Until mi hear odda wise, de husband is de prime suspect.
Kunta, thank you! I was thinking exactly the same… But, because I watch so much reality crime series on TV, I wasn’t sure if I wasn’t being too cynical…
Glad I’m not the only one suspicious.