A jury of six women and three men retired at 12:15 this afternoon to consider charges of attempted murder, or in the alternative, use of deadly means of harm with intent to commit dangerous harm, against salesperson Kaycia Fuller, 24, of Belize City.
They returned three hours and five minutes later, at 3:20 p.m., with a verdict of not guilty of attempted murder, but guilty of the alternative.
Fuller is accused of the attempted murder of Judean Brown on Hibiscus Street in Belize City on October 2, 2009, and was also charged for use of deadly means of harm and dangerous harm.
According to Judean Brown, she and her sister Tanisha Brown, were going to their residence, which is in the same yard as that of Fuller’s stepmother, Barbara Miller, and her family.
While passing a parked vehicle on which three women were sitting, one of them, identified as the stepdaughter of Barbara Miller, apparently said something derogatory to them. They decided to talk to her mother, but when they did so, they were met with a hostile reaction (she allegedly cursed at them and pulled out a knife and a broomstick at them).
Judean said she got between her sister and Miller, and then a son of Miller’s separated them and took his mother inside her apartment.
Later, according to Judean, Kaycia Fuller showed up at the premises and began to argue with Tanisha, allegedly concerning the squabble between her and Barbara Miller, and during the course of that argument, Tanisha claimed, Kaycia allegedly threatened that she would “kill wahn a unu [meaning either of the Brown sisters] tonight,” among other choice phrases.
Landlord for the premises, Josephine Flowers, intervened at that point, but according to Judean, about 15 minutes thereafter, Kaycia, on a bicycle, called to her (Judean) from the street side under a lamppost, and upon Judean coming over, pushed her and then grabbed her around the neck, took a knife from a pocket at the back of her pants and inflicted seven stab wounds: 1 to the right center of the back, two to the left lower back, two to the left side of the neck, and a nick to the left ear, before riding off.
Judean Brown was rushed to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital (KHMH) and treated. The attending physician, Dr. Salvador Paguaga, testified that the neck injuries were most serious, causing a hematoma (an area of coagulated blood) which had to be removed with surgery and which he considered life-threatening if it had not been treated.
Murder is defined as the intentional killing of another by means of unlawful harm, and to prove an attempt to murder, the Crown, represented by Crown Counsel Kaysha Grant, would have had to prove that harm was caused unlawfully and without justification to Brown, and that acts were committed that were immediately connected to the commission of the crime, and were committed with no other purpose than the specific intention of murder, even though the intended victim did not die.
For the alternative charge, the Crown had to prove that there was intent to cause dangerous harm, that is, harm that endangers life, by Fuller on Brown with the use of a deadly instrument, a nine-inch knife with an orange-colored handle.
In her own defense, Fuller said from the witness stand that she was visiting her mother en route to going for some food she had ordered, and that she exchanged words with Tanisha near her apartment.
According to Fuller, Tanisha threatened her with a machete that the landlord took away, and that was when Judean appeared from behind Tanisha, apparently carrying a knife. Judean charged at her, the hand with the knife allegedly raised high and aimed at her face, and they began to fight after exchanging pushes.
Fuller said she took away the knife in the course of the altercation and admitted to causing a single stab wound to Brown, but insisted that she was otherwise defending herself from attack, thus raising the issue of self-defense, which is use of justifiable force in circumstances in which the life or health of the accused or someone else is immediately threatened.
Fuller called two witnesses, her mother Barbara Miller and Shelmadine Petillo, a resident of the yard, to sustain her defense. She had no legal representation.
Justice Lord has set sentencing for January 12 of 2012.