Two weeks after a 12-member jury unanimously found him guilty, Delon Henry, called “Nasty Man”, was on Thursday sentenced to 51 years imprisonment by High Court Judge Sandil Kissoon for murdering East Ruimveldt, Georgetown footballer Dexter Griffith. Griffith was murdered on September 29, 2015, near his mother’s home. He was shot six times in the East Ruimveldt warlock area.
Henry smiled after he heard the court’s verdict and was even heard threatening persons as he exited court amid heavy security. Nevertheless, Griffith’s mother shouted that she forgave him as Police escorted her son’s killer out of the courtroom. Earlier in the day, the courtroom was packed to capacity with relatives and friends of the Griffiths’ who were all on the edge of their seats as the sentence
Delon Henry, known as “Nasty Man”
was handed down.
During Henry’s trial, he always professed his innocence and when it was time for him to have his say, he told the court that he was in jail from 2006 to 2014 as a teenager and that he had no knowledge of the Warlock area where Griffith was gunned down. He was represented by Adrian Thompson while Lisa Cave and Orinthia Schmidt prosecuted the case.
When he was found guilty last month, the jury required nearly six hours to come to a unanimous verdict. On that day, the 12-member jury emerged at about 15:30h, after being sequestered for deliberations before midday and were deadlocked at a proportion of 6-6. They were sent again and emerged later with the unified decision.
During the trial, jurors had been told that five spent shells had been recovered from the scene. However, former Inspector Jackson, who had then been a Sergeant of Police and had tendered the exhibits at the Magistrates’ Courts, had admitted that he could not find the exhibits, after making several checks at the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Headquarters, Eve Leary. The murdered
Murdered footballer Dexter Griffith
footballer’s brother, Keshawn Griffith, had testified that while in hiding, he had seen the defendant, Henry, firing a gun moments after his brother was shot. The deceased man’s mother, Lavern Griffith, had recalled running to the Warlock area from her home where she and other relatives saw the footballer lying in a drain.
It was reported in September 2015 that after being shot, Griffith had managed to stand and walk a short distance in an attempt to escape from Henry, but he eventually fell unconscious to the ground while his assailant escaped. He was taken to a city hospital, but was pronounced dead on arrival.
