The Tribune

A MAN who raped and strangled a 72-year-old grandmother hours after her sister's 75th birthday party was jailed for 39 years on Friday, a sentence some of her relatives felt was not harsh enough.

Justice Renae McKay sentenced Javon Forbes, 27, to 39 years for murder, 25 years for rape and 20 years for burglary, to run concurrently. Forbes pleaded guilty to all three offences in March.

Outside court, Vernencha Butler's relatives were emotional. They said they were relieved justice had finally been served after a long and painful journey, though some said the sentences could have been harsher.

Forbes, in a white shirt, was led out in shackles and handcuffs by a police officer.

The killing in November 2024 was the country's 111th homicide that year and sent shockwaves through the country. It came days after the body of a young schoolgirl, Adriel Moxey, was discovered, and it reignited calls for the return of capital punishment.

Butler, a seamstress and mother of three, had already endured a hard year. She had lost her father and two sisters, and had beaten breast cancer. She was unable to attend the funeral of the first sister, who died in January, because she was having a procedure done, her nephew, Sherwin Johnson, said at the time.

The family had looked forward to the birthday dinner for her elder sister as a night of celebration. Relatives dropped Butler at her Ross Corner apartment, where she lived with her son, at about 11pm on Friday, November 22. One of her last conversations was a call to that sister to say she had got home safely.     10052026_A03_MAIN_TRIB

Forbes, then 25, had been seen on security footage roaming the area shirtless and barefoot, loitering outside a nearby restaurant and bar. Police said he appeared to be consuming an illegal substance shortly before the attack. He later admitted the offences to police and said he was high on molly. He got into Butler’s home through a front room window.

At about 3am, Butler’s son and grandson came home from a party where her son had been deejaying. They found the deadbolt, which they usually left unlocked when they went out, locked. They picked it and found Butler’s body undressed on the floor, and Forbes sitting naked in her bedroom. The two men allegedly beat him.

Their next-door neighbour, Angela Curry, was woken by loud banging on her door. It was Butler’s grandson, asking for help.

“Grammy dead, and one man was inside raping her,” Mrs Curry recalled him saying.

Relatives initially saw no visible signs of trauma on Butler’s body. Police later confirmed she had died from asphyxia due to strangulation, and said an autopsy showed she had been sexually assaulted and had suffered internal injuries.     10052026_A03_MAIN_TRIB

Then Commissioner of Police Clayton Fernander said at the time that the case had affected him personally.

“It really hit home to me because it’s family from San Salvador,” he said.

He said Forbes, of Boat Alley, had been released from prison in March 2024 after serving time for vagrancy and housebreaking. He also said investigators had found that some people saw things that night but ignored them or failed to contact police.

The attack was the first of its kind at the two-storey complex, neighbours said. Mrs Curry, a longtime resident, said she would urge the landlord to install more lighting, cameras and bars on the windows.

“It’s puzzling how he got in here,” she said. “I’m scared to live up here.”

Mr Johnson said in the days after the killing that the family had never experienced anything like it and did not know what they should be feeling. He said Butler’s elder sister, his grandmother, was struggling to cope.

“I’m processing a lot of anger and hurt, you know,” he said, “because it wasn’t like she was sick. It wasn’t like it was a car accident or anything.”

He also said Forbes deserved the death penalty.     10052026_A03_MAIN_TRIB

When Forbes was arraigned days after the killing, with bandages on both arms, his lawyer, Mark Rolle, said other prisoners at the Grove Police Station had threatened him and that he was already bruised when police isolated him.

“He says he was told what will happen when he arrives at the prison,” Mr Rolle told the court.

Assistant Chief Magistrate Carolyn Vogt-Evans ordered that Forbes be kept in isolation for his safety at the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services.

Butler, remembered as a soft-spoken, happy woman, left behind a son and two daughters.