By Latrishka Thomas
Upon being declared fit to enter a plea on Monday, alleged serial killer Delano Forbes pleaded not guilty to two murder charges brought against him.
Based on the results of a psychiatric evaluation done by Doctor Philmore Benjamin, Justice Ann-Marie Smith stated that the 25-year-old has the capacity to comprehend the course of his criminal proceedings.
Two charges related to the murder of Liesure Williams and Shawn Henry were subsequently read to the accused and he pleaded not guilty.
The murder charges for Wilfred “Bongo” Williams and Maurison Thomas have not yet been read.
It is alleged that the Swetes resident killed the four individuals and drank their blood, which caused him to be dubbed the “vampire killer”.
When he was apprehended in December 2017, police reportedly went to an area in Swetes close to where he lived and found two bottles of what appeared to be blood.
Henry was killed some time between the 6th and the 9th of May 2017, Leisure Williams was killed in February 2017, and Wilfred Williams was killed some time later that year
Thomas, a retired postal worker, was allegedly killed on March 7, 2018 at Matthews Village, All Saints.
That charge was served upon Forbes when he was recaptured after a month on the run.
Forbes was accused of escaping the custody of police in February 2018 and was recaptured in a pump house at Follies on the night of March 9, 2018.
Just last week, Magistrate Ngaio Emanuel-Edwards found Forbes not guilty of escaping lawful custody.
She held that the evidence given caused her to conclude that he could not have “jump[ed] 30 feet off a cliff with foot cuffs on and not sustain severe injuries”.
Emanuel-Edwards further stated that based on the evidence given in the trial about a month ago, only one of the two elements needed to affect a guilty plea were met. The magistrate said that she is satisfied that he was lawfully detained, but not that he escaped or attempted to escape.
Having pleaded not guilty, the multi-murder accused will have to face a judge and jury in a High Court trial.