Thirty-one year old John Alexis will be getting a speedy trial for the murder of 14-year old Carriacou schoolgirl Esther Patterson.
The suspect made his first court appearance at the St George’s Magistrate’s Court Tuesday and was represented by U.S. trained attorney-at-law Jerry Edwin who confirmed that Alexis will be subjected to a Paper Committal.
According to Edwin, he expects the matter to reach the High Court for Trial rather promptly.
Alexis was remanded to the Richmond Hill Prison until his next appearance at the Magistrate’s Court in Carriacou on April 9.
Police charged the step-father of Esther within hours of treating him as a major person of interest in the murder investigation of the young teenager who is from the small village of Lauriston.
Police investigators were quickly able to bore holes into his version of events in which he stumbled on an unresponsive Esther on the compound of a church in Brunswick and took her to the Princess Royal Hospital where a doctor pronounced her dead.
THE NEW TODAY understands that Alexis is from the Concord area of St John on the west coast of Grenada.
Alexis’ initial report to the police is that he met Esther leaning against a wall on Pastor Happy’s church at Brunswick.
The step-father indicated that just after 9:00 a.m on Friday, he dropped off Esther in the town of Hillsborough and gave her money to pay for the bus ride to take her back home after school and to buy a drink for her break.
He also told police officers that the next time he saw her was around 2:00 p.m when he was driving his van towards town.
According to the murder accused, on reaching close to Pastor Happy’s church near Brunswick Cemetery, he saw her sitting with her head leaning against the wall on a step leading to the back of the church building.
He said he stopped the vehicle, came out of it and approached Esther but she did not respond to him and he then took her to the hospital.
The doctor who examined the body said she noticed that there were violent marks around Esther’s neck and inside her mouth.