Shackled, Johnathan Bethel of #26 Greenway Drivewas on Friday brought before Chief Magistrate Joyann Ferguson-Pratt to be charged with the murder of his 72-year-old grandmother.

Vivian Johnson was fatally stabbed on October 12 in the same house where she helped raise her alleged killer.

Sources told the Bahama Journal that 21-year-old Bethel allegedly stabbed his grandmother to death that evening after she confronted him about stealing $5,000 from her safe.

In court, Bethel’s attorney levied charges of his own. Glendon Rolle claimed his client had been beaten while at the Central Detective Unit (CDU).

Mr. Rolle even opened Bethel’s shirt to reveal a few red bruises on his chest beneath a blood stained undershirt.

While Magistrate Bethel acknowledged she could see the bruises, she said there was no telling where they came from.

The accused was not required to enter a plea to the murder charge and was denied bail.

Prosecutor Inspector Clifford Daxon requested the matter be sent to the Attorney General’s Office by way of a Voluntary Bill of Indictment (VBI).
Bethel is expected to return to court on August 17.

But it was not until police officers were escorting the alleged killer outside the court that the real drama unfolded.
Officers were determined to have Bethel hold his head up, but he continuously refused; forcing his attorney to tell the officers, there is no law that says his client must do so.

But one of the officers continued to pull the defendant’s head up, prompting an onlooker to shout out that they were wrong.
“Ms, please leave or you’re going in the cell the next minute,” the officer fired back.

“Leave right now and I’d drag you in the back there.”

The officer continued, telling Mr. Rolle that he too could be thrown in prison; enraging the defense attorney.

“If he chooses to hold his head up, he has the right to do so and the same thing with if he chooses to hold his head down,” he said.

“He [Bethel] was attempting to cover up the bloody shirt that he obtained from abuse while at the Central Detective Unit.

When I saw him and counselled with him, there was no blood. But now, the same shirt that he’s in, is the same shirt that he was in when I saw him last and there’s blood on it. Of course, his allegation is that he was beaten by the officers while they were doing the investigation.”

From court, Bethel was whisked away to Her Majesty’s Prisons (HMP) where his father is serving a 40-year sentence.
His mother died several years ago.

But family members who appeared in court during his arraignment said the young man was never troublesome, but was involved in positive activities like track and field.