Bahamas man found guilty of murdering pregnant Guyanese teacher
A Supreme Court jury in The Bahamas on Friday unanimously convicted the accused in the September, 2016 murder of pregnant Guyanese teacher Marisha Bowen.
According to the Bahamas Tribune newspaper, the 12-member jury, comprising 11 women and one man, convicted Allister Williams after just under two hours of deliberation.
According to the report, the Crown is seeking the death penalty for Williams.
The jury also found him guilty of robbing Bowen of two cellphones and an iPod.
Justice Carolina Bethel said Williams will receive his sentence on July 24th. A probation as well as a psychiatric report was consequently ordered to be prepared.
According to the Tribune, Forensic Pathologist Dr Caryn Sands, in her autopsy report, said the 35year-old woman, who was teacher at Charles W Saunders Baptist School, died as a result of six stab wounds to the neck and oxygen deprivation.
The pathologist’s report also said the half-dozen stab wounds caused injury and bleeding to the soft tissue and blood vessels in Bowen’s neck, leading to blood loss.
Dr Sands’ report also noted Bowen was approximately three months pregnant at the time of her death. The autopsy revealed a “normally formed” foetus whose measurements were “consistent with a gestation of 12 to 13 weeks.”
Further, the report said the 35-year-old had a belt around her neck with an underlying “furrow” consistent with pressure applied to her neck by the belt, which were associated with ruptured blood vessels in her eyes, mouth and larynx.
That would have caused lack of blood flow to her brain and contributed to her death, Dr Sands’ report noted, according to the Tribune.
Dr Sands’ report further stated that Bowen suffered numerous other injuries, such as upper lip lacerations and both lower and upper lip contusions, a contusion on the right side of the chest, intramuscular haemorrhage of the tongue and laceration to the mouth.
The Bahamian media had previously reported that Williams reportedly had no apparent connection to Bowen, whose lifeless body was discovered in her Nassau Village apartment on September 9th, 2016 after she did not show up to work.
Bowen, a graduate of the Cyril Potter College of Education and the University of Guyana, was a former teacher at both the Brickdam Secondary School and the Central High School.