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Old Year’s night murder outside KFC…Man gets 88 years for killing ex- girlfriend
Jermaine Maynard was yesterday jailed for 88 years for the murder of his ex- girlfriend, Carlissa Matthews.
Jailed for 88 years, Jermaine Maynard
Matthews was shot in the head in the vicinity of the Stabroek Kentucky Fried Chicken, (KFC) by Maynard, on December 31, 2013. Maynard, 44, was found guilty of murder by a mixed 12-member jury who retired to deliberate on the matter at the Georgetown High Court at around noon.
The panel returned to the courtroom of Justice Navindra Singh 90 minutes later with the unanimous guilty verdict. Attorney, Adrian Thompson, beseeched the court’s mercy on behalf of his client.
However, Prosecutor Michael Shahoud informed the court that Maynard was jailed for 14 years after he was found guilty of manslaughter a few years before Matthews was killed. The Prosecutor pointed out too, that what is most disturbing about this is the similarity of the circumstances and facts of both cases.
Maynard was previously found guilty of killing another woman, with whom he shared a relationship and supposedly loved.
Maynard appeared unmoved by the Prosecutor’s submission. He maintained that he is not the person who killed Carlissa Matthews.
The sentence was handed down moments later after the Judge noted his lack of remorse.
As such, Justice Singh started the sentence with a base of 60 years, ten years were added for premeditation, six years for domestic violence, six because the prisoner (Maynard) was previously convicted, three years for the use of a firearm, and four years for public endangerment. Two years were deducted for the time the prisoner had spent on remand pending his trial.
Maynard’s trial commenced at the Georgetown High Court on Tuesday. State Counsel Siand Dhurjon, Narissa Leander and Michael Shahoud, called a total of nine witnesses to the stand.
Among the witnesses were the dead girl’s mother, her aunt and her mother’s fiancé. The mother, Carol Kennedy, recalled witnessing the shooting, which resulted in her daughter’s death.
Murdered: Carlissa Matthews
The woman told the court that Maynard pulled out a gun from his side and shot her daughter outside KFC on December31, 2013.
At one point of her testimony, Kennedy recalled the shooter standing over her daughter even after she was injured and pressed on the trigger of the silver pistol; the gun clicked three times. She remembered that at that stage she started to advance toward the shooter but her fiancé Collis Bruce, who was also standing outside the KFC outlet on Water and Croal Streets Georgetown kept her back, telling her that Maynard was still armed and could shoot her as well.
Kennedy said that after Maynard left the scene of the shooting, she followed him leaving her fiancé, to take her daughter to the hospital. The woman said that she trailed Maynard, who walked until he was in the vicinity of City Hall, on Regent Street. There, the woman told court that she saw Maynard brandish the gun at Rasta man, who was passing on a bicycle and the man dismounted his cycle and handed it over to Maynard. And he took off.
The woman had also informed the court of the abusive relationship, which her daughter shared with Maynard. She said, however, that her daughter had severed the relationship with the man six months before the shooting. On the night of the shooting, Maynard nonetheless showed up and requested to speak with Matthews.
According to reports minutes before the shooting, Maynard approached his 20-year-old ex lover, and was seen briefly talking to her. He had requested a private audience with Matthews but she refused. Moments later Maynard pulled out a gun and shot her to the head.
Matthews was rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation, (GPHC) where she succumbed early New Year’s Day, 2014. Maynard fled the scene after the shooting was nabbed at the ‘back track’ crossing at Springlands, Corentyne on January 2, as he was about to board a boat to Nickerie, Suriname.
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