Moments before being remanded to Dodds Prison, a 54-year-old man charged with murder and arson asked the court to provide him with an attorney through legal aid.
Ricardo Okella Stanford, of Bank Hall, St Michael, appeared in the No. 1 District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court before Acting Chief Magistrate Douglas Frederick, accused of murdering 51-year-old Shanell Smith and destroying by fire a building belonging to Mohammed Hans, intending to destroy or damage such property or being reckless as to whether it would be destroyed or damaged, both on March 27.
Stanford, who was unrepresented, was not required to plead to the indictable offences.
“Sir, I am asking the court if I can get a legal aid lawyer please,” he said.
Adjourning the case until May 5, Magistrate Frederick replied: “Of course. You can avail yourself of a legal aid lawyer. They will provide you with the forms and you can fill them out.”
“Thank you, sir,” Stanford said as he was led out of the dock.
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Robbery – Oberon Padmore March 27th 2026
Wounding With Intent – Oberon Padmore March 27th 2026
Holder appeared before Magistrate Alison Burke in the District ‘A’ Traffic Court, on Thursday 2nd April 2026. He was not required to plead to the indictable offences and was granted bail to the sum of five thousand dollars ($5,000.00 Bds) Barbados currency. He is scheduled to reappear on Thursday 18th June 2026.
2026.3.31 Five female juveniles, aged between 14 and 16, have been formally charged following a disturbance along Marhill Street in Bridgetown.
The Barbados Police Service said the incident occurred on March 27 and led to multiple charges.
One of the teenagers has been charged with wounding and causing a disturbance, while the other four have each been charged with causing a disturbance.
All five are expected to appear before the District ‘A’ Criminal Court on March 31.
2026.3.20 ‘Last warning’: Mercy running out, says judge to gun offenders
A High Court judge has warned that first-time gun offenders may soon lose the option of fines and instead face prison terms as the courts harden their approach to firearms crime.
“We cannot afford to be reaping the bitter fruit of dead bodies from alleys and canefields. We cannot be doing this, not in a civilised society,” Justice Christopher Birch said as he sentenced Keanu Nathaniel Harris in the No. 5A Supreme Court on Thursday.
Harris, of Clapham Park, admitted to illegal possession of a 9 x19 calibre semi-automatic pistol and 15 rounds of ammunition on June 27, 2025. He was given an eight-year starting point, but was alternatively sentenced to pay fines, with Harris ordered to pay $15 000 for the firearm and $12 000 for the ammunition, of which $10 000 was due immediately.
Justice Birch said: “The patience of the courts will soon come to an end, and the time is coming when the dispensation will be brought to an end because it is obvious that people are not listening. People are finding guns, and then they come to court with the expectation, ‘It is alright. I will get a fine for this’. That door will soon close, and it will not be reopened in any hurry.”
Harris ran from officers at Clapham Park, then threw a firearm over a galvanised paling before being arrested, police said. CCTV footage reportedly showed him discarding the weapon, which broke a window of a nearby residence.
The judge told Harris: “You may well be one of the last people who will walk through that door. You have heard in the Budget that gun courts are coming. I want the public of Barbados to be in no doubt that the time will come when the therapeutic approach will have to be replaced with the cold face of justice. I want the people of Barbados to understand that this cannot be allowed to continue, and the time will soon come when a man will come for the first time, with no convictions, and they will be thinking that they will hold a fine, and they will be told that they are spending years.”
He continued: “This gun fetish, this ammo sexuality – it must stop! Once upon a time, you would see young men at a dance hall holding onto a nice young lady. These days, you see fellas in the dance hall showing off weapons, not women. This must end, and if we have to roll back from forgiveness and start talking deterrence, so be it.”
Asked where he got the gun, Harris told the court he “found it out by me by the hard court” and that he didn’t report it because he “wasn’t thinking”.
“Don’t say you weren’t thinking,” Justice Birch admonished. “You were thinking enough to conceal the weapon. You were thinking enough to run away from the police when they spotted you. You were captured on camera throwing the weapon away, so you were thinking…So you found it, and it did not cross your mind to call 211 and say: ‘Police, there is a weapon here on the hard court. Come and get it.’”
“You thought to stick it in your waistband and walk around. That strikes me as the action of a full fool, and you have now given up some of your life in prison for nothing.”
Harris replied: “Sir, I regret every day that I spend in prison. I just want another chance.”
But the judge said: “Sadly, the streak remains unbroken, and I am yet to hear someone confess to me where they got the weapon or from whom. Everybody can find a gun on a hard court. Some of these people cannot even clean up their own rooms or paint a house, but they can find a gun.”
Noting that the gun was unlicensed and the convicted man’s denial of the offence to police when he was apprehended, Justice Birch gave an eight-year starting point before discounting two years for his age, lack of previous convictions, early guilty plea and employment history. Two more years were credited for his early guilty plea, and after his 264 days on remand were taken into account, Harris was left having to serve three years and 104 days for the offences.
But the judge agreed with both prosecution and defence attorneys in suggesting that Harris be ordered to pay fines instead.
The balance of the $15 000 fine is to be settled in nine months, or the custodial sentence will be activated.
“I don’t ever want to see your name around these courts again,” Justice Birch told Harris. “I don’t ever want to see you around these courts again. Should you come back here again, the well of mercy will be dry.”
State Counsel Eleazar Williams prosecuted the case in which senior counsel Andrew Pilgrim represented Harris.
2026.3.16 71-yo woman remanded on murder charge
A 71-year-old St Michael woman has been remanded to prison after appearing in court on a murder charge.
Veronica Eudora Mayers of Bridge Gap, Upper Goodland, St Michael, is accused of murdering Ralph Forde on March 9.
She appeared before Chief Magistrate Deidre McKenna at the Oistins Magistrates’ Court on Monday morning and was not required to enter a plea to the indictable charge.
The matter adjourned until April 13 and transferred to District ‘A’ Criminal Court No. 2.
2026.3.14 Serial killer gets at least three decades behind bars
Editor’s note: This report contains graphic court accounts of explicit violence
A self-confessed killer who murdered three people, including his mother, in a series of gruesome and remorseless attacks over a five-week period, has been sentenced to life imprisonment with eligibility for release after 33 years.
Ramario Antonio Roach, of Ocean Breeze, River Bay, St Lucy, was charged with the slayings of Tyrone Austin on December 18, 2018, his mother, Joanne Roach, between January 18 and 21, 2019, and Dr Sarah Sutrina between January 20 and 22, 2019. He was 18 years old at the time.
He pleaded not guilty to murder on all three counts but admitted to manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility, which was accepted due to his psychiatric report. Roach has been diagnosed with schizophrenia and cannabis use disorder.
Justice Laurie-Ann Smith-Bovell sentenced Roach to 35 years for killing Austin and to life imprisonment with a 40-year and 60-year tariff for the slayings of his mother and Dr Sutrina, respectively.
The judge said: “The court has pondered long, with some sleepless nights in trying to arrive at a sentence which would protect society, allow for the treatment of the now convicted man and aid in his rehabilitation; however, the overriding interest for the court must be that of the protection of the members of society and maintaining the public’s confidence in the judicial system.”
In her ruling, the judge highlighted the evidence presented by the psychiatrist regarding the manslayer’s retained responsibility for the killings. She outlined that Roach’s “level of culpability was high and that despite your mental illness, you were aware of what you were doing”.
Justice Smith-Bovell continued: “Dr Chase indicated that the now convicted man’s indication that he will not take his medication on release is a conscious decision not affected by his illness…. The doctor stated that based on his medical opinion, the failure of the now convicted man to continue his medication regimen will create a high risk of recurrence of offences like this. He also indicated that, having killed on previous occasions,persons are likely to be less inhibited in committing the same offences again.”
Considering the aggravating factors, Justice Smith-Bovell found that all three slayings were unprovoked and that all of his victims suffered immensely, particularly focusing on the vulnerability of Austin, an elderly man, and the use of a rock to kill him.
In the case of his mother, the judge considered the brutal nature of the attack as he struck her several times in the head with a rock and slit her throat, partially decapitating her, his use of a knife, and their relationship.
Regarding aggravating factors in the case of Dr Sutrina, Justice Smith-Bovell recounted a brutal and depraved attack in which there was evidence that Roach surveyed her home and lay in wait for her on the verandah. Using a knife, he abducted her and struck her four times in the back of her head with a rock as she was changing a tyre. He then mutilated the woman’s body, stabbing her several times.
Roach had also been using illicit drugs, was thought to be at high risk of reoffending based on the pre-sentence report and the psychiatric report, and showed a lack of remorse.
After deductions were made for his early guilty plea and the 2 599 days so far spent on remand, Roach was left with a sentence of 16 years, 74 days in prison for the death of Austin, and life imprisonment with a tariff of at least 23 years before becoming eligible for release for the manslaughter of Joanne Roach, and life imprisonment with a tariff of at least 33 years for killing Dr Sutrina.
The sentences are to run concurrently.
The judge also ordered that the convicted killer use his time in prison to enroll in any programmes which would develop basic academic and vocational skills, as well as occupational therapy, psychotherapeutic rehabilitation and any other programmes deemed necessary by the psychologist and/or psychiatrist for his rehabilitation.
Moments before the sentencing, Roach read a prepared statement asking God for mercy before apologising for his actions and asking for leniency.
He told the court: “I have done very terrible things in the sight of God and man. I am young, please have mercy on me, Father…. I sinned as a boy, now I’m a man. I now finally understand right from wrong. Had I known then what I know now, I would have never been in this position. Have mercy upon me, Lord. I never intended for this to happen.
“Sorry cannot bring back the lives that I have taken. I have made a couple of mistakes in the eyes of God and man. I am wrong. Thou shalt not kill. Honour thy mother and thy father that thy days may be long in the land of the living which the Lord thy God has given me.
“I am not the same person I used to be. I sincerely apologise to the court, the family and the Almighty Supreme for what I did. I acknowledge that I have caused not only my family but other people’s family tremendous pain. I could only imagine the torture I put these people through.
“Your Honour, please have mercy on me.”
The court heard that the body of 68-year-old Austin of Free Hill, Black Rock, was discovered in a well-traversed track at Walton Drive, Paradise Heights, by a university student on his way home from class.
In his statement, Roach told officers that he met the deceased, who asked for money for rum, but his efforts to get change for a $20 bill proved unsuccessful. They later sat talking in a track, where Austin again expressed a need for rum. Roach then threw a rock and struck him in the head, causing him to fall, before taking another rock and bashing him several more times before leaving the area.
In the slaying of his mother, Joanne, who went to River Bay Beach facility in St Lucy to take a bath, Roach struck her in her head several times and sliced her throat as she was walking back with him.
Roach told detectives that his father had whispered to him to let them kill his mother. Investigations revealed that his father was not involved in the slaying.
The decomposing body of 68-year-old American national Dr Sutrina was discovered by a resident at Ocean Estate, Northumberland, St Lucy.
On the night of January 21, Roach confronted the deceased at her home, and brandishing a knife, forced her to drive him to St Lucy. On the way there, the car struck the road edge in Northumberland, flattening the tyre. He directed her to Ocean Estate, where she stopped to change it. While doing so, Roach attacked and mutilated her.
Acting Director of Public Prosecutions Alliston Seale SC prosecuted the case along with State Counsel Paul Prescod, while Senior Counsel Andrew Pilgrim and attorney Leslie Cargil- Straker represented Roach.
2026.3.13 Sentencing continues for man who dumped granddaughter’s body
The No. 4A Supreme Court will next week hear additional arguments on sentencing and remand time for an 80-year-old man convicted of disposing of the body of his 12-year-old granddaughter.
Winfield Nurse, of Bush Hall, St Michael, was found guilty by a jury last November of disposing of the body of Rasheeda Bascombe sometime between 2002 and 2013.
Principal State Counsel Olivia Davis prosecuted the case with State Counsel Tito Holder, while Nurse is represented by attorney Lennox Miller.
Justice Donna Babb-Agard adjourned the hearing until March 18.
2026.2.22 Christ Church man to be sentenced in March for unlicensed firearm, ammo
A Sayers Court, Christ Church man who admitted to having an unlicensed Jericho pistol and 11 rounds of ammunition is to be sentenced in the No. 3 Supreme Court next month.
Ryan Timothy Andrews, of Opal Road, appeared before Justice Carlisle Greaves in the No. 3 Supreme Court and pleaded guilty to having a Jericho 941 .40 S&W semiautomatic pistol without a valid licence and 11 rounds of ammunition without a valid permit on September 4, 2024.
The plea was accepted by Acting Senior State Counsel Anastacia McMeo-Boyce.
Defence attorney Shadia Simpson, who represents Andrews, waived his pre-sentence report and asked for his remand time record.
Justice Carlisle Greaves is set to hear the facts of the case and submissions from the prosecution and defence before giving his sentence on March 27.
Andrews remains on bail.
2026.2.21 Woman admits killing partner after ‘move on’ message says prosecutor
After Devitus Chase told her that he had met someone else and advised her to move on, Shaniqua Kadeesha Cecilia Clarke devised a plan to kill him, a prosecutor told the No. 4 Supreme Court on Friday.
Last month, Clarke, of Helstone Lane, Gall Hill, Christ Church, confessed to murdering Chase between October 18 and 21, 2022. She was 27 at the time.
Reading the facts into evidence on Friday, Principal State Counsel Rudolph Burnett said that the two met in their neighbourhood in 2018 and became involved in a relationship with several ups and downs, as, in March 2022, they ended up before the court due to Chase wounding her. They rekindled the relationship a few months later.
The prosecutor said that Clarke became involved with another man and told him about Chase, but did not inform Chase of her other relationship. Chase later informed her that he had met someone else and told her to move on with her life, which infuriated her, as it appeared she wanted both men in her life, Burnett stated.
“The now convicted woman devised a plan to kill the deceased. In June 2022, the other person and the deceased met in Gall Hill, in close proximity to the now convicted woman when the other person visited her. There was an exchange of words between the two men. The now convicted womaninvited the deceased to Welches Beach where she planned to kill him so that he could not be with (the woman),” the prosecutor outlined.
On October 20, that same year, Chase’s mother went to Oistins Police Station to report him missing after his cousin reported that he had not attended work. The next day, police received an anonymous call about a body on Welches Beach. A relative who found Chase’s cell phone at home saw WhatsApp messages indicating that Clarke was the last person he had spoken to.
In her witness statement to police, the now convicted woman initially denied knowing anything about Chase’s death, but later said that she had reached out to him the day before the incident, and he agreed to meet her to talk. She called ‘x’ and told him, and ‘x’ expressed doubts about accompanying her, but she convinced him, “as nothing was supposed to happen.”
She said that ‘x’ was to have been in the area hiding before she and the deceased arrived.
In the record, the now convicted woman described that ‘x’ ran up as she and the deceased were sitting on the sand and began hitting him with a stick about the head before placing him in a headlock, and she “panicked” and stabbed Chase with a knife he carried for protection. “I do not recall the amount of times I stab him. I dropped the knife. I said to ‘x’, ‘This crazy.
This was not supposed to happen. You promised he wouldn’t die. He was bleeding and not moving. This is all my fault,” the statement read.
The convicted woman said the other person pulled the body into some nearby shrubs and threw the stick into a bushy area, and she placed the knife in a bag.
Defence attorney Sade Harris, who represents Clarke, accepted the facts, and Justice Laurie-Ann Smith-Bovell adjourned the case until April 17, when sentencing submissions will be heard.
Jeremy Shamar Moore, 30, of Venture, St John, who was the subject of a wanted bulletin issued on February 6, 2026, in connection with serious criminal matters, is now in police custody.
Moore presented himself to District ‘C’ Police Station the following day and is assisting officers with their investigations.
The Barbados Police Service has thanked the public and the media for their assistance in the matter.
2026.1.1 Youth charged with murder
A 17-year-old St Michael resident has been charged with murder in connection with the fatal stabbing of Timothy Trotman last month.
Police said Adae Xavier Scott, of Military Road, Bush Hall, was arrested and formally charged by the Criminal Investigations Department in District ‘A’ for the offence, which allegedly occurred on December 22, 2025.
Scott is expected to appear before the District ‘A’ Criminal Court on Friday, January 2.
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