WESTMORELAND, Jamaica – A man has been charged with murder after allegedly striking his common-law wife with a hammer during a domestic dispute over her attendance at a party.

Forty-one–year-old Marvin Authurs otherwise called ‘Baboo’, a carpenter of Retreat, in Westmoreland, was slapped with the murder charge on Saturday following a post-mortem report which revealed that the woman, 35-year-old craft vendor Venecia Hylton, late of Sheffield and Retreat, died from multiple blunt force trauma to her chest.

Reports from the police are that Hylton and Arthurs were at their Top Hill district home with Hylton’s two children when they had an argument over her attending a party. During the dispute, it is alleged, Arthurs used a hammer to hit Hylton in her upper body which resulted in her falling to the ground and becoming unresponsive.

Arthurs subsequently went to the Negril Police Station where he filed a report about the incident.

He was subsequently arrested on reasonable suspicion of murder.

The police later visited the scene and, on their arrival, Hylton was seen inside a bedroom in the house lying face down on the floor in a pool of blood, with what appeared to be marks of violence on her back. She she was transported to the Savanna-la-Mar Public General Hospital where she was pronounced dead.

On Friday, November 25, a postmortem was conducted on the body of Hylton which revealed that death was as a result of multiple blunt force trauma to the chest, leading to Arthur being charged with murder.

– Kimberley Peddie