MANDEVILLE, Manchester — A Manchester family on Tuesday rejoiced outside the circuit court here moments after taxi operator Kevon Lesley was found guilty of murder in relation to the barbaric killing of his spouse, Shadae Brown, in front of her 11-year-old son, three years ago.

Lesley, otherwise called Nice, was convicted by a seven-member jury following a two-week trial in the Manchester Circuit Court. The guilty verdict was announced by trial judge Grace Henry McKenzie.

Lesley is expected to be sentenced on February 26.

His attorney, Norman Godfrey, opted not to comment on the matter pending the sentencing.

Outside the court, Brown’s family huddled and praised the verdict.

“We got justice for her and it is three years now, it was a heavy load on us. Her son, her mother, and for all of us, it was very heavy, but thank God we got justice,” Millicent Laird, the grandmother of Brown’s son, told journalists.

Laird was especially relieved for Brown’s son, who had testified in the trial after witnessing the Friday, March 10, 2023 murder of his mother.

“Her son gone to school, so you see when he comes home tonight he is going to be happy, because he is still scared of the guy. He [Lesley] is out of our lives,” said Laird.

The son and his then five-year-old cousin were left traumatised after witnessing his 28-year-old mother being stabbed repeatedly with three knives by her spouse, despite their cries for mercy.

Her son was also reportedly threatened by Lesley during the murder committed
in Newport, Manchester.

“The son said to him, ‘Weh you a do mi mother so fah?’ and him seh, ‘Move from yah suh before mi stab you too,’” Brown’s mother, Donna Walker-Ellis, said as she shared the gruesome details of her daughter’s murder during an interview with the Jamaica Observer three years ago.

At that time, a senior police source said investigators believed the couple had a dispute about 8:30 pm. A police report said the man then proceeded to use the knives to stab Brown repeatedly before fleeing the scene.

The children were reportedly locked inside the house with Brown’s body. After hours of trying to get out of the house to seek assistance, the 11-year-old alerted neighbours.

A bus owned by Brown’s relatives, which was given to the accused to drive, was found a short distance from the house with the keys inside and was reportedly used by neighbours to transport Brown to hospital where she was pronounced dead.

“All now I can’t get over it… Even now it is traumatising for the baby (Brown’s nephew). You can’t ask him nothing about it. When you ask him, him run up and down like he is crazy,” Laird told the Observer on Tuesday.

“We are so happy, because we prayed, we fasted, and we asked God to give us strength and everything that we need. God has spoken. We didn’t have any doubts. The way it was heavy we kept praying and asking the Lord to give us strength. Today, God gave us strength, joy, and the answer. You can’t fly up in God’s face, and we thank God that justice is served,” Laird added.

She recounted her last moments with Brown, who was described as a “very humble” woman.

“One week before she died she was right in my house. We had a close relationship. She was a good lady. She didn’t fight, quarrel, so I still don’t know how this happened,” said Laird.

Brown’s mother had told the Observer three years ago that her daughter was in an abusive relationship with Lesley.

Walker-Ellis said her daughter allowed Lesley back into her apartment in Daley’s Grove, Newport, two weeks before her murder, after the two had separated in January 2023 following an alleged dispute in which a chair was reportedly thrown at the woman.

“[In] January (2023) he lifted up the chair [from] round the table because he wanted to talk to her and she was never in a talking mood, so he lifted up the chair and lick after her and she blocked it with her hand. It even lick out the bulb in the kitchen. She rushed to the door and the force that she held the handle with, it popped off,” said Walker-Ellis.

“He left and kept on calling me and complaining. He called her and she blocked him. Within her, she [was] finished with him, but then he kept calling and begging her to come back, and she — with her soft heart — felt sorry for him. She is that type of person, so he came back one week and a couple days [ago, then] this happened,” added Walker-Ellis.

On Tuesday, Walker-Ellis praised God as she rejoiced at the guilty verdict.

“Shadae is my first of four girls. Justice has been served. I have been praying all this time for justice and it has been served, and I thank God. I spent sleepless nights and days fasting and praying and today God has answered my prayer. Thank you, Jesus,” she said.

“I was very hopeful. I believe so much in the Almighty God, because I know no tears go unnoticed and no sin goes unpunished,” she added.

Walker-Ellis said people in the community of Newport were also pleased to hear the verdict.

“It means a lot to the community, because of the type of person she was. She was very hard-working; always at work. She worked so hard and for this to come and happen she never deserved this in no way,” she said.

“She was well known. Shadae was a people person — very jovial, very honest, very hard-working. She wore her heart on her sleeve. She was very kind,” she added.

Brown had been working at a private medical facility as a surgical assistant for close to eight months up to the day she was killed.

Murder victim Shadae Brown.

Donna Walker-Ellis holding a photo of her daughter Shadae Brown on Tuesday. (Photo: Kasey Williams)

Relatives of Shadae Brown display photographs of her on Tuesday outside the Manchester Circuit Court where her spouse, Kevon Lesley, was found guilty of her murder three years ago. (Photo: Kasey Williams)

Millicent Laird, the grandmother of Shadae Brown’s son speaking to journalists on Tuesday outside the Manchester Circuit Court. (Photo: Kasey Williams)