A prophetess is dead, and a mentally ill man is in custody after she was attacked, allegedly by the man at her home in Diamond on Tuesday afternoon.
The deceased has been identified as Roseclair Williams, 60, of Diamond, who is a prophetess at Victory Kingdom Covenant Ministries Int’l in Diamond.
Her body was found in her yard around 1:15 p.m., with what appeared to be stab wounds.
When police reviewed CCTV footage in the area, they saw that Williams was in her garden attending to her plants when she was attacked by a man with a history of mental illness.
Police have since taken one Branson Prince into custody, and he is being assessed at a health facility.
The killing brings the homicide count in St. Vincent and the Grenadines so far this year to 14.
It took place on a day that Chief Magistrate Colin John ruled inadmissible in court a report on a mentally ill man charged with a gun crime, which was prepared by a non-expert.
The matter came to the fore on Thursday as lawyer Grant Connell questioned the qualifications of doctors at the Mental Health Rehabilitation Centre (MHC) who signed reports saying that an accused man charged with firearm and ammunition offences is fit to stand trial.
On Thursday, Dr. Alisa Alvis, Dr. Micheal Stowe and Dr. Franklyn Joseph appeared in court after Connell had told John a few days earlier that all the competency reports from MHC, located in Glen, were similar despite being written about different patients.
Alvis, Stowe and Joseph told the Serious Offences Court that they were not qualified psychiatrists, while Alvis said she has a PhD in psychology and was not a clinical doctor who could prescribe medication.
Connell is defending, free of cost, Belair resident Kesroy Williams, a schizophrenic patient, charged that on Feb. 6, he had a prohibited weapon, a modified .32 firearm and three rounds of .32 ammunition at his home, without a licence.
This is Kesroy Williams’s second firearm charge in 18 months, having been jailed in December 2024 after pleading guilty to possession of a .38 pistol and three rounds of .38 ammunition. The court allowed him to plead after an MHC report found him fit to do so.
On that occasion, the facts read that Kesroy Williams had told police officers that he had two guns, “one for a wedding” and “one for a funeral”, and that he would show them the firearm if they promised to take care of it and give it back to him.
When he was eventually sent to prison for firearm possession, Kesroy Williams asked if the gun would be returned to him after his sentence was concluded.
The court ordered that the accused man be sent back to the MCH to be examined by a psychiatrist and a report sent to the court ahead of the next hearing on May 30.
SVG has been without the services of a full-time psychiatrist for over a decade.
