On May twenty ninth, 2008 nineteen year old Karen Crawford and a family friend forty four year old handyman Maurice Cadle were shot and killed. They were innocent victims because police strongly believe the killers who went that night to Karen Crawford’s house in Bermudian Landing were after her common law husband Emmerson Wade who authorities believe became a target after an alleged drug deal went sour.
Following the horrible crime the murderers then ransacked the home owned by Emmerson Wade apparently looking for drugs. At that time the victim’s families cried out for justice but one year and some six months after the loss of their loved one, one of the young men accused of the ruthless double homicide walked out of Magistrate’s Court number two a free man. Twenty year old Nelson Henry, a labourer of sixteen Lakeview Street was freed of two counts of murder and one count of conspiracy to commit murder.
The reason? The lack of evidence. Court reports are that the Director of Public Prosecution Cheryl Lynn Branket Taitt instructed that all charges be withdrawn from Nelson Henry because there was no evidence against him.
But as one of the accused is now a free man his co defendant John Chessman was not so lucky. It is not certain what evidence the prosecution may have against him to implicate him but his charges still stand. John Chessman will return to court on December thirtieth that is when a preliminary inquiry will be held to determine whether a prima facie case has been established against the accused.
