ALTHOUGH 14-year-old Santoya Campbell was last Saturday laid to rest here, three days after 37-yearold Cornelius Robinson was sentenced to life in prison for murdering her, members of her Logwood, Shrewsbury community are still in shock over the teen’s horrific end.
Like several other members of the rustic farming community, Veniesha Hill is of the view that the penalty handed down for such a gruesome crime was a mere slap on the wrist. Hill strongly believes that Robinson, a fashion designer and photo studio operator, should instead have been given a death sentence for the Janury 26 murder.
“Him wicked. Rope feh go round him neck and hang him because him kill the pickney,” an enraged Hill lashed out. But father of the deceased, 75-year-old Felix Campbell, who lives outside the community but frequents Logwood, was contented with the sentence handed down by Justice Martin Gayle in the Westmoreland Circuit Court last week. “Let me tell you something, I loved my daughter. [And] I am very satisfied with the judge’s action. I am not going to say I am not satisfied. I am very, very satisfied. It is only because I can’t get her back,” the broken-hearted father, who describes himself as a carpenter and cane-cutter, told the Jamaica Observer West on the weekend.
However, while the father was willing to speak to the Observer West team, Pauline Ferguson, Santoya’s mother, was reluctant. She chided the Observer for reporting the testimony given by the convict in court that it was she who approached him to supply the child with lunch money.
“Everything over and she [Santoya] bury yesterday
[Saturday] so what unoo
come bout again?” said the
seemingly distressed mother.
“Don’t talk to them!” was
her daughter’s [Shanika
Thomas] stern advice.
Santoya’s father, who sired
two other children with the
14-year-old’s mother before
the relationship broke off
over a decade ago, also
distanced himself from the
alleged financial arrangement
between Robinson and his
young daughter.
“As far as I am concerned I
don’t know if the man was
giving her money any at all,”
he told the Observer West,
adding that he frequently
gave his child money.
“I gave her money
regularly. So anytime she
want and call me, mi always
give her. Mi buy her food
and she deh yah, deh yah
[stayed with him] until she go
back to the mother,” he said.
He added that he was also
oblivious to the fact that his
daughter was pregnant.
“Mi and her close, close,
close, but me never know she
pregnant. If she did live up
here what happened couldn’t
happen. No! It couldn’t
happen because she is afraid
of me. Although mi never
beat her, she afraid of me,”
he emphasised.
In the meantime, Hill and
other Logwood community
members who swarmed the
Observer West team, which
visited the area, said they
were convinced from the
onset that Robinson was
guilty of the student’s
murder.
They claimed that
the day the child went
missing, Robinson, who
visited his mother’s house —
close to where Santoya lived
— stared blankly instead of
joining with the crowd,
which was pondering why
the student could not be
found.
“Him come up here the
same day after him kill the
pickney. And if you and
somebody a friend and you
hear say that them missing
you supposed to go over her
mother’s yard and ask about
it. Him just stay over him
mother yard with him hand
pon him jaw and a look inna
space until him go wey,” she
stated.
One week ago, the
Westmoreland Circuit Court
heard that Robinson told the
police that he knew Santoya
from she was a primary
school student, and that he
agreed to provide the child
with lunch money at the
behest of her mother.
Robinson claimed that after
a while the young schoolgirl,
who used to visit his photo
studio, started to make sexual
advances on him, to which he
finally yielded once between
late September and October
2014.
He also claimed that he
was being blackmailed by
Santoya, who demanded that
he buy her a Smartphone.
Early in the morning of
January 26, Robinson
reportedly claimed that on
her way to school, the young
student, who was later
proved to be pregnant,
visited his business
establishment in Savanna-la-
Mar, where she demanded
money to purchase the
phone.
He claimed that when he
told her he did not have the
amount of money needed for
the phone, she became
boisterous and threatened to
report their relationship to
her mother and his wife.
It was at that time that
Robinson said he became
frustrated and held the girl
from behind and strangled
her to death.
The court was told that he
confessed to hiding her
corpse in his business place
until about 11 o’clock that
night, when he transported it
in the trunk of his motor car
and dumped it under the
Cabaretta River bridge, near
to the girl’s school.
Robinson will become
eligible for parole after
serving 25 years in prison
“everything over…” nah bitch you still alive. Death to all women who sell dem children.
The mother should go to prison as well, She is NO good. Granted we know time hard but why you a ask a big man to give your child money for lunch? what is that suggesting. Ahhh sah. This has been going on for years, Poor Jamaica I tell you.
Bwoy met YU a di best nuh wonder mi addicted to ovah yah suh, yu know how long mi want see how dis pussy look. Wicked motherf…cker, a hope dem turn di f..cker in a bitch while in prison…ahhhh sahhh…. Di muma fi get charge next to.
Him kill the little girl and hide her in the back of the photo studio and continued business as regular. What a wicked dirty nasty filthy stinking bastard. I heard that he would sleep at the house some times. The mother knew about it and condoned it
Dats why ppl fi married before dem start baby making. All dis getting one pickney yasso from dis one, and one from dat one is wah cause dis fkry fi a gwan suh long. No stability, no unit, no values. At least when you married you know who di provider is fi di household. Just as how shi could guh ask some big man fi help, she could haul har ass guh ask a charity, ngo, or church. Slackniss from top to bottom is what cost dis girl her life. Hear di puppah bout him give har money when shi ask. If you hab school going teen dem haffi come to you fi money u nuh must know daily transport, lunch, books and all di odda tings associated wid schooling haffi gwan?
Di dutty killa deserved a stiffa sentence. Cause fi kill and mutilate someone teck a wicked hawt of a different sort. Now you not only a pedophile but a murderer as well, betta you did kill uself instead cause your legacy done. Your children will always haffi walk di land knowing dem Faada is a pedophilic murderer, what alegacy you leff dem wid. All chu unno caan choose fi do what uplifting and right in life.
Bull.
The married and live inna a house fathers/mothers screw off their daughters too.
Married and live inna house parents kill their off-springs too.
Married and live inna house parents sell their children too.
Married and live inna house parents abuse their children too.
Married and live inna house parents starve their children too.
Marriage have ZERO to do with this; the child wasn’t fatherless and the man attest to providing for his child at ALL TIMES….the matter is having a worthless, nasty mother and highlights the male predetors in our society whom are aided by DUTTY WOMEN…MARRIAGE DON’T STOP ACTS OF DEPRAVITY, NOR EVIL!
There are always exceptions to every rule; people who eat healthy and exercise get sick everyday, does that mean ppl should not eat healthy and exercise? Going to work daily, does not mean you will have a job tomorrow, does that mean ppl should stop working? Crime happens everywhere, does that mean we should accept crime in our neighbourhoods? I am not here for the exceptions. I know arguing the exceptions is an easy talking point for many, but in truth it adds nothing, it usually come from those operating on knee-jerk reactions.
Marriage is not perfect, but a woman is much better off planning her family wisely and choosing wisely a man of good character who is willing to marry her and BE there completely for her and the family, even if the woman is financially buoyant the emotional involvement the child reaps by having a father at home is proven time and again, of course there are cases where two ppl are not compatible and it makes sense they do not live together under any circumstance. Does that mean children from single parent homes are doomed, and children from two parent homes are guaranteed a perfect future? Obviously no. How many married women at home you know asking another man to take care of her children? I am sure there are some exceptions, but the vast majority of women with husbands are not asking another man to financially support her children. This goes back to my original point, with a husband at home a provider is there, no guessing about who the man of the house is, and whose responsibility it is to provide for the home.
No, I do not believe the father that he was a consistent provider. Dead man tell no tales, anything can be said now that such disgrace is upon them all. I do not believe his statements one bit. Then again, if he is 75 yrs old as the newspaper states what may seem ‘often’ to him is likely not the case to someone younger. It would be interesting to know Santoya’s mother age, and to figure out why she mated with a man in his then 60s. Something definitely ain’t right in Logwood, Shrewsbury, that is for sure.
*Apologies for length*
I well waa somebody come on here and mek wi know what a gwaan. Caz mi know fi him confession no strait
I’m not shocked at all. Jamaica is a lawless country and di people dem love to put up with nough nastiness and slackness from long time. Mother’s selling dem children fi money been happening in Jamaica fi years. And the worst thing about it is, it naw guh change. Why? because Jamaican people are to licky licky. I don’t understand, if you cannot financially afford to maintain children why have so much? Or only have 1 child if that’s the case. Not 3, 4, 5 pitney, then yuh a guh haffi do all kinds of dutty tings to maintain dem.
The mother is to be blamed in all this. She should share the blame with the man who murdered her child. As much as I hate that child murderer I hate her even more!!! She was the instigator & enforcer. How can you put out your child to a man??? What about protecting & providing for your children??? There are many mothers out there who does domestic work just to be able to provide for their children & she chose to use her young attractive daughter as a bait to reel in a married man who could supply her needs?? she used her child as a pawn & pimped her & now want d Observer to go away & leave her in peace. lady I hope u find no peace in all this & hope u r tormented for the rest of your life, u robbed your child of her innocence & her future!!! She should be charged for accessory to murder!!!!