The Tribune

By DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Freeport Reporter

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

A Supreme Court jury yesterday returned a unanimous guilty verdict for Dwayne Belizaire for strangling his 49-year-old godmother and leaving her dead in a bathtub. 

The 33-year-old Eight Mile Rock resident was convicted yesterday of killing Margaret Smith, a mother of three children on Valentine’s Day three years ago. He will return to court on April 30 for a sentencing.

The Tribune understands the prosecution will not seek the death penalty, however, a murder conviction carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

Justice Estelle Gray-Evans delivered her summation of the case at 11am and turned the matter over to the jury sometime after noon for deliberation. 

Jurors returned around 3.55pm with the verdict of 12-0 guilty on the murder charge. 

Smith was found dead at her home in Seagrape, Eight Mile Rock, on February 14, 2017. The prosecution believed that she might have been killed between 10am and shortly after noon. According to an autopsy, she was strangled and immersed in water. The deceased also had injuries on her back from a knife and a bite mark on her arm.

The prosecution, led by Erica Kemp, produced DNA evidence linking Belizaire to Smith’s murder. According to the evidence, the defendant’s DNA was found under fingernail clippings of the deceased, and also inside a condom that was found by police in bushes behind the dead woman’s home along with her clothing, and a set of keys to her house. 

After the verdict was handed down, Justice Evans asked Belizaire’s attorney if she had any reasons why a sentence should not be imposed at this time.

His lawyer, Jethlyn Burrows, requested that a probation report be conducted for her client, prior to sentencing. 

Justice Evans thanked the jury of eight men and four women for their service to the court.  

Smith’s daughter Jenee Gibson — who attended the trial everyday – was very pleased with the outcome of the trial. 

“We waited three years for justice for our mother, and we are very happy with the verdict,” she told The Tribune. 

She said the family never thought that Belizaire, who was a close friend of the family, would harm their mother in such a manner. 

“We knew him, talked with him; he was my mother’s godson, and we never thought he would have done what he did to her,” Ms Gibson said.