Jaron Oneal Dottin on Wednesday expressed remorse for his actions which led to the death of his brother Jamon Lewis on April 13, 2020.
“It’s been hard not only for my family but for me. I regret everything that has happened and if I could go back in time I would do [everything] to bring back my brother,” said the Dukes Tenantry, St Thomas man moments before he was sentenced to time served which has allowed him to spend his first Christmas at home in two years.
“[It’s] terrible losing a brother. I am sorry for the circumstances that I caused . . . . [I] just want to move on forward with my life and be there for my niece. She was only two years old when my brother passed away and she is five now. I just want to build a relationship with her and be there for my family . . . . ,” he added.
The landscaper had previously pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to manslaughter before Justice Carlisle Greaves in the No. 3 Supreme Court.
According to Senior State Counsel Neville Watson, the siblings got into a verbal altercation on the morning of March 25, 2020, after loud noises made by Lewis woke up Dottin.
The exchange became heated and the quarrel escalated and moved into the road. Dottin went to find his mother at a neighbour’s house to quell the situation, but on his way back to their house he met his sibling still in the road, now armed with bottles.
Their mother and sister tried to de-escalate the situation to no avail. Lewis threw a bottle in the direction of Dottin who took up a 2×4 piece of wood as Lewis sent another bottle his way. Dottin retaliated by delivering a single blow to his brother’s head, causing him to fall to the ground unconscious.
On seeing the state his brother was in, Dottin tried to get transportation to take his sibling to get medical attention. An ambulance subsequently arrived and Lewis was taken to the hospital where he was treated. However, he passed away several days later. An autopsy concluded that his death was due to a traumatic head injury as a result of a fractured skull and bleeding in the brain.
Dottin was arrested and initially charged with serious bodily harm but following his brother’s death, the charge was upgraded to murder.
During the investigation, he told police: “I don’t need a lawyer. He is my brother . . . . I will take responsibility.”
“All I got to say is that [in] the history of we fighting, it never went that far . . . . We never hit one another with anything . . .”
Both the prosecutor and defence attorney Safiya Moore described the deadly altercation as “an unfortunate situation”.
They also agreed that there was no planning or premeditation in the commission of the offence, that it was an instant reaction on Dottin’s part, he was not pre-armed, one blow was inflicted, the strong element of self-defence, and the fact that Dottin sought help for his brother immediately.
The lawyers agreed that a starting sentence of five years in prison would do justice to the case with deductions for the mitigating factors, his guilty plea and the time he had spent on remand.
The submission was agreed to by the judge and the resulting sentence was 33 months. Dottin was therefore sentenced to time served.
“This is a sad case indeed. Sad and unfortunate,” said Justice Greaves in his sentencing remarks.
“It demonstrates how easy it is for us to speed from zero to 100; how we can move from one moment from a state of peace to a state of war; how you can go from a law-abiding citizen to a convicted [person].
“It demonstrates a concern that I have every day. Why are we so angry? Why does it take such little things to trigger us? We have a case where one is disturbed in his sleep, one doesn’t act in consideration of the other . . . . Next minute it escalates and a brother is dead and everybody is left to suffer,” he added.
Justice Greaves said citizens must take a breather and give thanks for life and liberty.
“My people, we in this country have to train ourselves to live in a state of peace, quietness and humility and perhaps if we do so . . . we might reduce the violence that we have in our country,” the outspoken judge said.
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