After spending 4 years on remand for the stabbing death of Osborne "Fish" Gordon, 52 year-old Lucilla Bartley, aka "Chilla" is at home tonight after Justice Troadio Gonzalez acquitted her in a trial without jury this morning.
Viewers may remember that Gordon was stabbed to death on April 24, 2011, at around 1:30 a.m. on the corner of Cemetery Road and Curassow Street. Shortly after police started investigating the death, Bartley was charged with the crime of murder, and she was remanded to the Belize Central Prison. Well, it came out in her trial before Justice Gonzalez Bartley was the one who gave police a caution statement admitting to fatally stabbing him, but she claimed self-defence. Nevertheless, the decision was taken to charge her with the capital offence.
In the trial, evidence emerged that Bartley, who once had a romantic relationship with Gordon, was walking with another man on Cemetery Road. That's when Gordon spotted him, and in an apparent drunken rage, he approached her and threaten her life with a knife. She told the court that she had a history of domestic abuse with this man, who often beat her severely. She says that Gordon attacked her, and she had to defend herself.
After considering all the evidence, Justice Troadio Gonzalez acquitted her and sent her home to her family of 5 children. It is the outcome that she and her attorney, Dickie Bradley were hoping for, and after the hearing, he told us that the state authorities were wrong in taking criminal action against this woman, given the glaring evidence of self-defence. Here's how he explained the situation to the awaiting press:
Dickey Bradley - Attorney for the Accused
"Lucilla Bartley, who is 53 years of age. On the 24th of April 2011, around 1:30 in the wee hours of the morning was walking with a male friend when out of the blue a former lover appeared known as Fish, who cleans fish at the market at Vernon Street. He cursed her and told her "you're dead today. I'm tired of you disrespecting me." All kind of other words. He then pulled out a knife and attacked her. The police witnesses and the Justice of the Peace were present when she gave a statement confirmed that she had bruises, scratches and other injuries on her neck, shoulders and body. She grabbed on to the hand that had the knife and she struggled. She told the judge in her statement in court that she asked the Lord for strength and held unto his hand, struggled with him and they fell to the street. She was with a companion who Fish told her, "You better don't get into this. You better go about your business." and he took off. Therefore, she had no witness because he went. They fell to the street, she managed to escape because the knife had fallen. A vehicle was passing with Antony Mayen who would have been able to verify her story but he has also left this world. She was in fact prevented from escaping, from getting into the vehicle by Fish who proceeded to beat her and then attempted to get the knife from off the street. Which she reached the knife first and fire two stab and one of those stab penetrated the heart and the person died. Shortly after the incident she met a Justice of the Peace and related the full story how she was attacked. How she was trying to defend herself. How she believed the man would kill her because she had lived with him and he was a violent person and so on. That Justice of the Peace came to court and told the court that story. That story was in fact supported by the fact that she then in the presence of that JP went to the Queen Street Police Station and gave a written caution statement. So, his Lordship looked at the evidence briefly just now and his ruling was that she was not guilty and she is not going to return to KOLBE as she has been doing over the past several days of the trial. She told me that she has not slept. That If she had been found guilty she would have taken her life. She had been in jail for 4 years and God is great as the Muslim say."
Reporter
"Do you think it is a travesty of justice that she has lost 4 years of her life behind bars?"
Dickey Bradley - Attorney for the Accused
"I 100% take that view and I know the crown council - you could feel you were strained to fight a case of this nature. That a woman who at 1:30 in the morning has done nothing. You had seen her. You probably were able to take photos. She is 5 feet. Your question is most important for persons who are in prison where the evidence is clear they committed no crime or in this case they could have charged her for man slaughter. She would have been on bail and she would not have lost 4 years of her life. You are correct. There is absolutely no evidence."
Crown Counsel Leeroy Banner represented the prosecution in this case.
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