[www.inewsguyana.com] – Shock and despair surged through Horace Lorenzo Jones in the court dock yesterday when a 10-person jury found him guilty of murdering his mother, Roxane Gilbert in Gladstone on June 29, 2012.
The court heard Jones struck his mother 25 times with a samurai sword and steak knife.
The Guyana-born man, head bowed, shook in disbelief as Justice Duncan McMeekin drove home “the brutality of the events around your mother’s death”, during his summary of the evidence before Rockhampton Supreme Court.
Jones, who the court heard was a sponsored, premier-level basketball player in Gladstone and Bundaberg, has been sentenced to life imprisonment.
That prison sentence carries a 15-year prison term, because the murder took place before June 30, 2012.
During sentencing, Jones’s defence lawyer, Lars Falcongreen, said his client had worked across several jobs in 2012, before he was arrested for his mother’s death.
He worked as a customer service representative at a McDonald’s outlet and as a mechanic at an autobody store.
Mr Falcongreen told the court that since Jones had been remanded in custody in July 2012, his client often replayed his mother’s “brutal” killing “over and over again” in his head.
“He misses her in many ways,” Mr Falcongreen said on behalf of his client.
“He is very remorseful… he realises he has killed someone.
“He thinks about that day (of his mother’s death) 24 hours a day, seven days a week and realises now he should have just run away.”
Justice McMeekin said he was satisfied that on June 29 Jones had struck his mother 25 times from behind.
Justice McMeekin also said he was satisfied that a combination of Ms Gilbert’s wish for her children to be successful, the influence of friends on Jones and other factors, was what triggered the 21-year-old’s attack on his mother.
Mr Falcongreen said his client had only ever been before the court for a public nuisance offence in Gladstone.
During day four of the trial, friends of Jones took the witness box and described him as an otherwise “kind” and “gentle” person.
There was no indication yesterday whether Jones would be appealing his sentence. [Extracted and modified from the Australian Sunshine Coast Daily]
