It has now come to light that Kelly Daniel is unfit (for trial) based on his mental history (and) he along with other persons must receive the proper diagnosis…and a psychiatrist will determine whether legally he is unfit to plead.
That’s the contention of American-trained Attorney Jerry Edwin who is providing defense counsel for murder accused Kelly Daniel of Pearls, St. Andrew.
In February 2022, Daniel was arrested and charged by police as the main suspect in connection with the gruesome chopping death of 79-year-old John Merchant, a Guyanese national who resided at Pearls, St. Andrew for several years.
The Attorney contended that the murder suspect, who appeared in the High Court on Monday before Madam Justice Paula Gilford has a medical mental history, is unfit for trial, and should not be housed at the Richmond Hill Prison with other criminals.
“We have to protect people like Kelly Daniel because they do not understand what they have done but Kelly Daniel, as I have informed the court is someone who has to see a psychiatrist and we can determine whether he should be in a medical facility to be treated or at the prison, and we are saying he is not, he is actually mentally disabled,” said Attorney Edwin.
Daniel was 27 years old when lawmen laid an indictable Non-Capital Murder charge against him after he reportedly mutilated the body of the Guyanese man at his home during an altercation just after 5 a.m. on February 12, 2022.
The circumstances that led to the brutal killing remain unclear, however, it is understood that at the time of the attack, the deceased was in bed, accompanied by his female companion, who is also a Guyanese national.
Information reaching THE NEW TODAY at the time of the fatality was that the decapitated head of the man was found in the bathroom of his home, where the murder accused is said to have dismembered the body, before placing them in buckets, which were later discovered floating in the nearby Dumfermline river.
On the occasion of his first court appearance at the Grenville Magistrate’s Court last year, Daniel, who faces a maximum penalty of life imprisonment, received strong support from family members who expressed “shock” over the fatal chopping incident.
The murder accused was described by family members and other Pearls, St. Andrew residents as “a quiet person…always interacting with people in the community.”