A 31-year-old is now admitted to the Acute Psychiatric Unit (APU) for treatment after a nine-member jury deemed him unfit to stand trial for murder. Curvin John Ravaliere was charged with the April 30, 2017, murder of 61-year-old Rogecien Laurent of Petite Soufriere.
Reports indicate that on the aforementioned date at about 7:00 p.m., the elderly man received a stab wound to the chest which resulted in his death. The incident occurred on the main road in San Sauvear whilst Laurent was on his way home to Petite Soufriere. At Ravaliere’s arraignment in January 2023, the accused man who was represented by the Legal Aid Clinic assisted by attorney Tiyani Behanzin did not enter a plea, as his lawyers requested a psychiatric evaluation to determine his fitness to do so.
The defense lawyer told the court that the application was pursuant to section 36 (A) of the Criminal Law and Procedure Act, as he stated that Ravaliere’s suspected illness is among the worse he has seen. The prosecution which was led by the acting Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) Sherma Dalrymple assisted by State attorneys, Daina Matthew and Marie Louise Pierre-Louis, did not object to the application.
Before granting the request of the defense, Dominica’s former High Court Judge, Justice Richard Floyd questioned the accused following which he stated, that he was “dismayed” that Ravaliere has been in custody for over five years without an evaluation.
“This is very, very, troubling,” he expressed.
This month, a jury of six women and three men found him unfit to plead at the end of a one-day trial. When the matter came for hearing before a jury and Dominica’s newly appointed judge, Justice Thomas W. R. Astaphan, Behanzin led the witnesses through their evidence.
Consultant Psychiatrist, at the APU, Dr. Nadia Wallace, who was one of two witnesses told the court that she examined the accused. Dr. Wallace said Ravaliere had long suffered from mental illness, since his residence in Guadeloupe, before returning to Dominica in 2012.
He was treated at the APU for schizophrenia, cognitive deficiency, hallucinations, paranoid delusions, and was not in touch with reality she averred. According to the psychiatrist, the 31-year-old did not appreciate the implications of his actions, simply stating he had run for a knife and stabbed the deceased in the chest and did not know he died.
While an inmate at the Stock Farm State Prison, he also stabbed an officer in the back of the neck and did not know the implications. It was the expert opinion of Dr. Wallace that Ravaliere was not fit to plead or stand trial. Questioned by the DPP, Dr. Wallace added that he could not give attorney instructions during a trial. In response to some probing by Judge Thomas Astaphan, Dr Wallace explained that schizophrenia is a mental illness that has a debilitating effect. The patient sees or hears things not present and is characterized by delusions of things that are not true or do not exist. The person’s speech is disorganized and makes no sense in terms of the question and answer given. The individual’s behaviour is chaotic, and one can’t tell what they may do.
Ravaliere was a heavy user of marijuana and drank alcohol, which would worsen the symptoms of a schizophrenic person besides not taking their medication. From her study of his medical history and her examination, his cognitive impairment had moved from mild 20/30, to 8/30.
Ravaliere in 2013 would not have been able to discern reality from fiction, was the conclusion of the court based on the expertise of Dr. Wallace. Dr. Verna Alfred of the Newtown Health Centre examined Ravaliere on March 3, 2023, at the Newtown facility. From their interaction, his speech was clear, and his thought process was normal.
There was no abnormality in her physical examination of the patient. He was in stable health, meaning his cardiovascular, respiratory, gastrointestinal, and muscular-skeletal were typical, and vital signs were normal. Following the evidence of both health practitioners, Justice Astaphan, in his brief address to the jury, asked them to look at the evidence of the two doctors to arrive at their verdict about the fitness or unfitness of Ravaliere to plead.
After deliberation, they returned with a unanimous decision that Ravaliere was not mentally fit to plea and stand trial. Justice Astaphan ordered that Ravaliere be taken to the APU for treatment. Recently, another murder accused saw a discontinuance in his case having spent over nine years on remand.
Emmanuel “Manny” Azille, walked out of the court a free man after the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Sherma Dyrample filed a notice of discontinuance in the matter. Azile was charged with the murder of then 46-year Marilyn McLawrence of Portsmouth on September 30, 2014. Her lifeless body was found on a track near her home in Glanvillia,
Portsmouth at about 7:30 p.m. with serious wounds to her head.
Since his arrest and remand at the Dominica State Prison in 2014, Azile had always maintained his innocence and denied any involvement in his “friend’s” murder.
So much injustice in my land. Why oh why are people spending so much time on remand or waiting for cases to be heard. While Mr. Linton, Edo and Thompson are still awaiting a trial after so many years, other are languishing in prison on REMAND. God help us all. The DPP and Chief Magistrate needs to be fired immediately! Somebody please call the UN department dealing with human rights.
This is no joke, today its these people tomorrow will be ours. Dca is a failed state therefore we need immediate change.
Dominica, at present, reminds me of a very ailing human being with all the major organs failing – lungs, kidneys, heart, liver, etc.
In Dominica, all the major organs and systems, without exception, are critically infirm. The parliament; the justice, education, health, electoral systems are being choked to near death by the wanton corruption of those in high public office.
Here are some stark facts:
*Citizens are arrested and remain on remand in a foul, rodent infested cell for years
*A visit to the Chinese friendly hospital too often leads to a lifeless body in the morgue
*Presently, the high national debt means every new born Dominica is saddled with a debt of $9 363
*the rate of unemployment among the young is staggeringly high, some have it to be as above 50% and climbing.
We have to rid the country of that low caliber man of self out the Office of Prime Minister to get a reprieve on life.