Police were last night questioning a man in connection with the slaying of Trevor Berbick, the first Jamaican boxer to hold a world heavyweight title, who was found dead at his gate in Norwich, two miles west of Port Antonio in Portland yesterday morning.

It is believed that Berbick, 52, was attacked and chopped to death by a person using a sharp instrument as he walked home from a nearby bar at around 3:00 am.

A resident of the area found the body with four chop wounds to the back of the head and notified the Port Antonio police at around 6:00 am.

The police have not yet established a motive for the killing and according to Constabulary Communication Network (CCN) officer, Corporal Duane Campbell, robbery has been ruled out.

“A hundred dollar bill was found near the body, but this does not suggest the motive was robbery. In fact, robbery has been ruled out so far,” Campbell told the Sunday Observer.

“The police are still searching the area for clues but nothing has been found yet,” Campbell said at around 2:30 pm yesterday.

Berbick, who has had several run-ins with the law, both in Jamaica and in Canada from where he was deported a few years ago, had an ongoing court case stemming from a domestic dispute with his former sister-in-law.

The police confirmed that up to the time of Berbick’s death, the matter was still before the court.

In the 1990s, Berbick was convicted on several counts including rape for which he was sentenced to four years in prison and grand theft for forgery of his wife’s signature.

He spent 15 months in prison before being deported from the United States. Berbick returned to Jamaica to settle in Norwich, about 60 miles north east of Jamaica’s capital, Kingston, in 2002.

In April 2003, he was freed of larceny and housebreaking in the Port Antonio Resident Magistrate’s Court.

He was scheduled to be the special guest at a boxing extravaganza in St Ann tonight.

Berbick created history for his native Jamaica in March 1986 when, fighting out of Canada, he scored a 12-round unanimous decision over Pinklon Thomas to lift the World Boxing Council (WBC) heavyweight crown.

He held the crown for eight months before losing in November to 20 year-old “Iron’ Mike Tyson in a second round knock-out that brought Tyson his first heavyweight title and the distinction of being the youngest heavyweight champion in history.

Berbick is also remembered as the last boxer to fight boxing legend Muhammad Ali, beating Ali in 1981.

During his 24-year professional career, which ended in 2000, Berbick chalked up a 50-11-1 record with 33 knock-outs.

Apart from the WBC title, Berbick also held the United States Boxing Association (USBA), WBC Continental of Americas and the Commonwealth British Empire titles.