\n<\/p>\n
A man described as the Caribbean\u2019s first serial killer has received a 30-year sentence for the torture and murder of a woman, days after he was given a life sentence for another double killing.<\/p>\n
Kathron \u201cCuchi\u201d Fortune, 47, was accused of \u201cunbelievable violence\u201d in the Assize court in Basse-Terre, in the French territory of Guadeloupe, where two separate trials were held in September and October.<\/p>\n
On 25 September Fortune was sentenced to life with a 22-year minimum sentence, for the deaths of Jomo Maynard and Gilbert Hyman in 2005 and 2006 on the island of Saint Martin, which is divided between French and Dutch territories.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, he received a separate 30-year sentence, with at least 20 years to be served, for torturing and killing Ang\u00e9lique Chauvir\u00e9 in 2006, also in Saint Martin.<\/p>\n
The verdict was welcomed by Sandra Chirac-Kollarik, the lawyer representing the Chauvir\u00e9 family.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a relief, given the savagery that this 31-year-old woman suffered. Ang\u00e9lique Chauvir\u00e9\u2019s family said very few words to me. But I think they welcome this new sentence,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Maitre Karine Linon, the lawyer representing the family of Hyman, said: \u201cThis case is unusual and it will go down in history simply because we are dealing with a defendant who is a serial killer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fortune had previously been convicted of three other murders which were committed on the Dutch side of the island, known as Sint Maarten.<\/p>\n
Fortune is originally from Grenada. In 2007, he was given a 21-year sentence by the Dutch court of appeal for the 2005 murder of Ervin Margarita, 23. But he escaped custody during a doctor\u2019s visit in February 2016.<\/p>\n
In December that year, he killed Luis Sarante Diaz and Edwin Rosario Contreras in what was thought to be a botched drug deal at the Simpson Bay Resort in Sint Maarten. Their bodies were found eight months later in a lagoon several miles from the hotel.<\/p>\n
Fortune fled to the neighbouring Caribbean island of Saint Kitts in July 2017, armed with a rifle, wearing body armour, and carrying a substantial amount of cash. He was immediately arrested and deported back to Sint Maarten that same month.<\/p>\n
Weeks later, hurricane Irma devastated Sint Maarten in September 2017 and damaged parts of its prison. He was transferred to a prison in Cura\u00e7ao before being moved to a maximum-security facility in the Netherlands. In June 2019, Fortune was convicted for Diaz and Rosario\u2019s killings.<\/p>\n
While still in prison in the Netherlands, Fortune was tried in absentia by a French court in 2020 for the deaths of Maynard, Hyman, Chauvir\u00e9 and sentenced to life. But he was able to successfully file an objection to the case being held in his absence, which reopened the case for a trial at which he could be present.<\/p>\n
Guadeloupe\u2019s attorney general \u00c9lodie Rouchouse told the court that Fortune\u2019s case had been complicated by the fact that his crimes had been committed in different jurisdictions, which each had their own legal systems. \u201cI reopened the case to see justice done. But it took a long time. Under international agreements you need the right authorisations, translated judgments, everything in place. That process took five years,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Throughout the trials in Guadeloupe, Fortune has maintained his innocence. During closing remarks he told the jury: \u201cI know the truth will come out but I cannot give you the truth because I don\u2019t know anything about it. I did a lot of bad things in my life. I\u2019m not proud of them, but I don\u2019t see why I should be convicted for a crime I did not do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fortune\u2019s lawyer, G\u00e9rald Coralie, has since confirmed that an appeal has been filed for both cases. He will be returned to the Netherlands later this month and his appeal is due to be heard in Paris.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A man described as the Caribbean\u2019s first serial killer has received a 30-year sentence for the torture and murder of a woman, days after he was given a life sentence for another double killing. Kathron \u201cCuchi\u201d Fortune, 47, was accused of \u201cunbelievable violence\u201d in the Assize court in Basse-Terre, in the French territory of Guadeloupe,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25441,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[15373,458,15372,15374,976,1541,2798,2865,14549],"class_list":{"0":"post-25440","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-crime-justice","8":"tag-30year","9":"tag-caribbean","10":"tag-caribbeans","11":"tag-guadeloupe","12":"tag-killer","13":"tag-man","14":"tag-prison","15":"tag-sentence","16":"tag-serial"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}