ST ANN, Jamaica — A farmer accused of stabbing his girlfriend to death during a dispute received bail when he appeared in the Parish Court in Brown’s Town yesterday.

Twenty-three-year-old Javell Devarn Lindo, otherwise called ‘Mafia’, who was arrested on February 7, 2021, for the murder of 31-year-old bartender Keniesha Reid, was offered $500,000 bail with stringent conditions.

These include that he will stay away from his community of Frazer district, Cascade, and only visit the parish to see his lawyer.

Bail was granted on the application of attorney-at-law, Yannica Gabbidon, who represented senior counsel Ernest Smith, who is using ‘crime of passion’ as a defence, on the basis that the deceased acknowledged an affair with a man from the same community on the night of the incident.

Lindo will return to court on May 4.

According to the police, at about 11:00 pm on February 6, Reid and Lindo had a dispute after she was seen speaking with another man at the bar she operated.

Reid reportedly left for her apartment, also in Frazer district, and was followed by her boyfriend. The argument escalated.

The police reported that Reid was stabbed with a knife several times in her torso. She subsequently ran from the house onto the main road where she collapsed.

She was later pronounced dead at the Percy Junor Hospital, and Lindo turned himself in at the Cave Valley Police Station.

Donicka Robinson