A baker who torched his ex-lover’s eight-apartment house in downtown Kingston which she shared with three other families, claimed that he was drunk and the devil told him to start the blaze.
“She had two suits that she wear go church and the devil come to me mind and say me fi burn dem,” the accused, Dwight Brown, said in his statement to the police which was read in court last week.
The 41-year-old, otherwise called “Breadman”, of James Street in downtown Kingston, was arrested and charged for the New Year’s Day fire, which destroyed the house and left nine people homeless.
The court heard that Brown went to his former lover’s home and lit a telephone card, then pushed it through the window. The flame caught two dresses, which developed into a major fire that razed the house.
The fire stemmed from a fight that Brown had with his ex-lover two days before the incident, the court heard, which resulted in the woman beating him up after he punched her in the face.
Brown’s ex-lover said that she ended the relationship with Brown two years and two months ago because she could not deal with a man “who trace like woman”.
According to the complainant’s statement, on December 30 about 11:40 pm she was walking home along King Street when she saw Brown quarrelling behind her.
The woman said she continued walking and when she got to her gate, he said to her: “You think yuh can tell me say me and you leff.”
Brown then reportedly punched the woman in her neck but the complainant said she “leaned him up inna de corna and give him three.”
Both reportedly began to wrestle and Brown tried to go through the woman’s house door but the complainant flung a stone and hit him and he ran off.
According to the complainant, Brown kept stoning her house throughout the night and prior to the fire had threatened to burn down her house twice, but she did not take him seriously.
But Brown in his signed statement to the police said that he was drunk and that the devil spoke to him and told him to light the complainant’s house.
“The liquor weh me did drink bust inna me head yuh know … it and di weed,” he said in his statement.
“She had two suits that she wear go church and the devil come to me mind and say me fi burn dem,” he said “The devil a talk, caa true she did give me a lick wid a stone de previous night and it did come to me mind.”
According to Brown, he knew that the complainant would not feel good about him burning her dresses but that it would give him a chance to talk to her.
On Friday when he appeared in court, the magistrate asked if he was of sound mind but was informed by the liaison officer that the investigator was of the view that he was not insane.
Brown then pleaded guilty to arson, but maintained that he was drunk.
“Is drink I was drinking, it was not intentional, ” he said.
“Me sorry fi you,” said the magistrate.
“Me come and me feel a way and den me get carried weh,” Brown added.
“You are going to carry yourself away,” the magistrate told him while explaining to him that he could get life in prison for burning down the house.
However, Brown was offered $200,000 bail and is scheduled to return to court on February 10 for sentencing.
So mi nevah know seh police can determine if man insane now fi di purpose a justice..di judge really ask a police man dah? Di police a which ologist? see yah, caz if dah man deh seh satan come to him u nuh si seh di man nuh too right. Plus if him tink seh him could just ketch di two piece a clothes a fire and it would not bun dung di rest of di house..dah man nuh right up top..di lick wah di woman gi him mussy mad him, along wid dah weed and drinking..