Kartel taking things in stride — girlfriend
A day after his murder conviction in the Home Circuit Court entertainer Vybz Kartel was said by the mother of his three children to be taking things in stride.
Tanesha Johnson, more widely known as Shorty, spoke with the Jamaica Observer at her upper St Andrew homeon Friday after visiting with Vybz Kartel behind bars.
“He said he got an unfair trial and that everybody who’s behind it knows that he got an unfair trial,” Johnson told the Sunday Observer.
“He’s holding up. He said he left everything in God’s hands. He sends his love for his kids. He sent his love for his real supporters,” Johnson added.
Vybz Kartel and friends Shawn ‘Shawn Storm’ Campbell, Andre St John and Kahira Jones were convicted on Thursday of August 16, 2011 beating death of friend Clive ‘Lizard’ Williams over the disappearance of two illegal guns.
Accused Shane Williams was acquitted at the end of the five-month-long trial before Justice Lennox Campbell. However, Williams is to be charged in connection with another murder, police have said.
According to the defence, the police orchestrated a conspiracy to convict the men and that evidence was fabricated.
On Friday, Johnson and her relatives who were at her home were of the view that Vybz Kartel had been set up.
“I don’t think he got a fair trial either. I don’t think they had enough evidence to convict him,” said Cydionia Johnson, Vybz Kartel’s sister-in-law.
A few hours before the Sunday Observer visited with Tanesha Johnson, Teresa Palmer, Vybz Kartel’s mother, said from her Portmore home that her grandchildren — 10, nine and three yeas old — were expecting the release of their father.
Later, Tanesha Johnson said that the incarceration of Vybz Kartel, whose real name is Adidja Palmer, had been wearing on them, especially the 10-year-old.
“He has been taking it hard. He locks himself in his room. He prays a lot and he’s not talking much. They ask how their friends’ fathers are around them and they cannot live without their father,” Johnson said.
Johnson said that she tries to explain the situation to them as best she can.
The convicted men are to be sentenced on March 27.
– Paul Henry
