The family of Clive ‘Lizard’ Williams, the man dancehall star Vybz Kartel is convicted of murdering, has expressed satisfaction at last week’s dismissal of the entertainer’s appeal against his conviction.
A three-member panel of the Court of Appeal, headed by President, Dennis Morrison, rejected the appeal by Kartel and his three murder co-convicts on Friday.
According to Williams’ family, the decision came just days before he would have celebrated his 36th birthday on April 11.
“We are pleased with the outcome of the verdict from the Court, while we continue to grieve the loss of our brother, son, uncle,” a release from the family stated.
The family also sought to dismiss the authenticity of a voice note circulating of a woman claiming to be the mother of Williams.
“We would like to state unequivocally that the voicenote that is being circulated in social media is not that of Lizard’s mother,” the release stated.
“That behaviour is totally out of character for our mom and she does not use that language. In addition, Clive was born in April and would have turned 36 on the 11th of this month. He was not born in August as stated in the voice note,” the family said.
According to the family, it should also be noted that whomever the voice note is referring to was allegedly killed in February while Lizard was murdered in August.
“While the sender did not claim to be Lizard’s mother, social media bloggers looking for fame and likes have twisted it that way. We truly empathise with the sender – if they have in fact lost a loved one – but ask that they contact the authorities if they wish to share their experience,” the family said.
“The family of Clive ‘Lizard’ Williams asks for privacy during this time. We prepared this statement for the sole purpose of clearing up the misinformation being published,” added the release.
Kartel, whose real name is Adidja Palmer; Shawn Campbell, also called Shaw Storm, Kahira Jones and Andre St John were convicted of Williams’ slaying in 2014. They were all sentenced to life imprisonment. Kartel will be eligible for parole after 35 years while the other three men become eligible after 25 years.
Lizard was allegedly murdered by Kartel and his cronies because a gun that was handed over to him for safekeeping had gone missing.
