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Murder accused: Benette ‘Iron’ Hippolyte
The suspect in last week’s Barre Denis homicide has been charged.
According to police, 27-year-old Benette Hippolyte, also known as Iron, of Barre Denis, was charged with non-capital murder and made his first appearance in court today.
He was not required to plea to the indictable charge and was ordered remanded until his next court appearance on May 11, police said.
Hippolyte is accused of inflicting a fatal stab wound to the stomach area of 19-year-old Jamal Frederick aka Edo in Barre Denis on Friday, March 10, around 9:30 p.m.
DEAD: Jamal Federick
Relatives of the deceased as well as eyewitnesses told St. Lucia News Online (SNO) that Frederick was killed after a heated argument over a cigarette.
A resident told SNO that he was present when an argument developed between the deceased and another young man over a cigarette. He said the alleged killer intervened in defense of the young man.
“Jamal bought it (the cigarette) but the other boy threw it down by mistake, so Jamal was asking him to buy it back. The one who stabbed him stepped in and take the case. But they (Jamal and the suspect) were not dealing so there was an exchange of words,” the witness said.
During the heated exchange between and the suspect, a fight “almost” broke out, the witness said.
“People separated them. Jamal threw a stone but another man said the stone hit him instead of the boy (the suspect),” the witness pointed out, adding that the suspect never hit Jamal during the argument.
After the altercation everybody went their separate ways, the witness said.
“Jamal went back by a shop and buy something. So he sat outside on his phone talking to his friends when the boy came back, made as if he went and buy something inside the shop. On his way back out, he just stabed Jamal in the abdomen and ran. Jamal was lying on the floor and relatives were by his side trying to get him to stay calm,” the witness explained.
Frederick died at Victoria Hospital and became St. Lucia’s 19th homicide victim for 2017.
A relative of Frederick told SNO that the deceased was not a “bad boy” and described the alleged killer as a “hater”.
“He (Jamal) wasn’t no bad boy eh. He (alleged killer) was a hater. He was troubling Jamal earlier on and he attacked Jamal for a problem dat wasn’t concerning him,” the relative alleged.
Federick was an employee at Du Boulay’s Bottling Company Ltd.
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