Eight years! Mother of murdered Old Harbour woman pleads for justice

On March 6, 2016, Trecia Gordon, known affectionately as ‘Tonniel’, was stabbed to death in Alligator Pond, Manchester, less than a week after starting a new job there as a bartender.

It is alleged that Gordon who was then only 21 years old and a single mother of a two-year-old son, had a disagreement over an unpaid bar bill with a customer, Asha Thompson.

The two would see each other later at a wake where an argument ensued about the unsettled debt. And though one of Johnson’s friends subsequently paid the bill, he felt disrespected and allegedly stabbed her subsequently in the abdomen. She was later pronounced dead at the hospital.

Mitchell is understandably upset at the pace of the judicial system which has been grinding so slow at times that it appears to be stagnant.

According to Miss Mitchell, the case was called up in 2020 but she was not told anything about it and therefore did not attend and knows nothing about what transpired at that time. She was in the process of looking about the necessary forms to secure Gordon’s death certificate when to her surprise she learnt that the case had actually been before the court.

Speaking to Old Harbour News, the frustrating mother of three, lamented: “Me nuh feel good about it. The case call up and me never know anything about it.

The policeman never called nor informed me. They say because I only identified her body and was not there at the time of the altercation, that I did not need to be informed and me tell them say no, nothing cannot go so.”

On Monday, January 29, 2024, the case was again mentioned before Justice Grace Henry-McKenzie in the Mandeville Circuit Court but postponed for an entire year in order for the police to find the witness.

However, community members are adamant that the witness is not difficult to locate and subpoena as the individual is still active in the community, Mitchell claims.

“In January when it was again mentioned, I was there and I heard them say the case would be postponed. The judge looked at me and said ‘mother, pending on finding the witness, they will have to put off the case until May 21st’ and I was fine with that until me realise that is May 2025 them a talk about! That can’t be right,” she said.

In her opinion, the lengthy delay seems like a deliberate attempt to get Gordon’s family to give up and simply walk away from the case. But she is adamant that that is not going to happen.

In her quest to seek justice for the death of her second child, Mitchell says she has made several trips to the Director of Public Prosecutions Office (DPP) to no avail. Each she visits the ODPP she has been told that the Director of Public Prosecution Paula Llewellyn is busy.

She informed that she has also spoken to Judge Lennox Gayle, as well as a Legal Aid lawyer, a  Mr. McKenzie, but no-one, she said, has been able to adequately explain why there is such a lengthy delay.

“Is like them want me to give up and me nah give up. Me nuh need nuh lawyer. Me a use myself and God because me must get justice,” said the 50-year-old mother, who is a well-known resident of Nightingale Grove and Spring Village.

Gordon’s son Hardly Coleman turns 11 years old in July but his life, so far, has been a cyclone of emotions. Added to that is the fact that Mitchell is currently unemployed and is struggling to care for her grandson financially. She says the child’s father plays no part in his life, leaving all of the responsibility on her and her family’s shoulders.

To offset some of the burden, she has applied for PATH benefits but has so far been unsuccessful.

“They say that I don’t need it because I live in a house that has a tank on it but this is my mother’s house, not mine. Right now is over $6,000 I have to find for his lessons and bus fare so it is rough. My eldest daughter overseas and other family members help out because everyone wants to see the best for this child,” she explained.

Her grandson, she said, has understandably been having a hard time especially whenever his mother’s name is mentioned.

“The other day at school was Parents’ Day and he had no-one there for him. When you mention his mother’s name his face will change. Is the guidance counselor at school we working with to get him the help that he needs,” Mitchell said.

Gordon, who hailed from Nightingale Grove in Old Harbour was a past student of the Old Harbour High School and according to her mother was a hard worker just trying to make a life for herself and her child.

She recounted: “Them tell me that the last thing she said before she died was ‘look how me ago dead and nuh see me pickney even start school.’”

Though it has been several years since the incident, the rest of the family she stated struggles to cope with their emotions which run the gauntlet from anger and the need for revenge to sadness and depression.

“I can say that my family hurt and some of them are rebellious.  Even now, every day my mother cries over it. She wants me to take her to the grave site but I caa tek har because she suffers from pressure and sugar and me know she nah go manage the stress. My last daughter she stubborn and very angry and when she talks some things me haffi tell har no, leggo that talk ‘bout revenge,” she said.

The investigating officer assigned to the case, one Detective Corporal Walters, has no immediate answers for Mitchell but stated that while he understands her frustration he implores her to be a little more patient.

“The case is ready and I am ready as well because I too have been waiting since 2016 to deal with the matter but I have no control over the scheduling of the date. If there is fault, it would be that of the defense counsel. I have people a walk and look for Eric (the alleged eye witness) and we now have an address so that will be taken care of,” he tells Old Harbour News.

Walters too is unhappy at the slow pace of the justice system, but says while it is moving slowly, at least it is moving.

“I understand how Miss Mitchell’s feeling but believe it or not, it is getting somewhere. Just look at the dates in between the first mention which was 2020 and last month. That is almost 4 years. The next one is in a year so the dates in between are actually getting shorter and shorter,” he said in an optimistic tone.  

Meanwhile, the alleged perpetrator Asha Thompson, who was 24 at the time of the incident, has been out on bail, working and leading a regular everyday life.

But this is extremely painful for Mitchell who has had to pick up the pieces resulting from Gordon’s untimely death.

“I see the guy (Johnson) and his father a court and see how him get fat. Everybody a go bout dem business while she dead and her son nah nuh mother. How can that be justice?” she bemoans.
 

Efforts to get a statement from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions pertaining to the case have proven futile.