Mentally ill man stabs neighbour, later found dead

MARVA DAVID describes her only child, Keston Thomas, as having a spirit of entrepreneurship and a loving nature. She said from a young age Thomas began vending. However, his life was cut short on April 6 when he was shot and killed.

Thomas, 33, had been struggling with mental-health issues and on that day, attacked and stabbed a neighbour. The 51-year-old victim is currently hospitalised.

In a phone interview with Newsday on April 7, David described the situation as incredibly difficult. She reflected on the last three years, during which she had been trying to help Thomas after his mental break which she believes was related to his marijuana use.

“He stabbed his stepfather (her husband) about three years ago,” David explained. “I don’t know what triggered it (his mental health breakdown).”

Following the attack on her husband, David enquired about Thomas’s diagnosis but was told because he was an adult, his diagnosis could only be shared with his attorney. As a result, she remains unaware of the specifics of his condition.

On April 6, Thomas, a resident of Beetham Gardens, Port of Spain attacked their neighbour around 6.45 pm, stabbing him multiple times. The victim was rushed to the Eric Williams Medical Complex in Mt Hope.

After the stabbing, Thomas fled the scene and his whereabouts were unknown. Unaware of the chaos, David called the Besson Street Police Station after hearing gunshots.

She went to check the area where the sound came from, about 100 metres from her home. It was then she found her son motionless on the road, his body covered in blood.

David went back home, got a sheet and covered his body. When police arrived, they observed Thomas was wearing a red jersey and black pants. His right foot almost severed at the knee.

Crime-scene investigators suspect Thomas was murdered elsewhere and his body dumped at that location. While searching the area, officers found one round of five.56 ammunition a "considerable distance" from where his body was found.

Asked how many times Thomas had been institutionalised at St Ann's Psychiatric Hospital, she said, “About three times in three years, but he’s been discharged since October.

“I did everything humanly possible for Keston when he was growing up. Keston was baptised in church. He was never a rude or disrespectful child. He wasn’t one to talk much or quarrel.”

For a brief moment, David’s tone softened as she reflected on her son before his mental-health issues became apparent.

“He always had lots of girls: beautiful, smart women who were working. I would ask him if he was selling them dreams. I didn’t know how he got them to fall for him. I’d tell him, ‘You have no money, what are you telling them? Your mother has the money and your father has land.’”

Her tone then grew more serious as she turned her focus to the events from three years ago, saying after Thomas stabbed his stepfather, there was a shift in the family dynamics and he moved into a detached room at the back of their home.

“Anybody passing on the road, he would tell them, ‘Let my Mummy know I love she. He would tell them that a thousand times."

She shared there was no history of mental-health problems in their family but believes Thomas's breakdown stemmed from his marijuana use.

“Every time he came out of St Ann’s, I would tell him to stop using marijuana. He would say he wouldn’t do it any more, but he would go do it anyway.”

She said Thomas never took medicine prescribed to him.

“He’d throw them away.”

David’s advice to other families is to keep their loved ones as close as possible.

Struggling to describe her grief, she said, “Knowing I have no one else, he never left a legacy (grandchildren): I just don’t have the words.”