29.7.11

In a jealous rage-- he has confessed to the brutal slayings of Vonetta Haynes-Reyes and her two sons

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In his statement, the man told homicide investigators he killed Vonetta, 31, in a jealous rage and also brutally attacked her sons because they knew him.

Amplify’d from www.newsday.co.tt
A 24-year-old man has confessed to the brutal slayings of Vonetta Haynes-Reyes and her two sons, Malik, eight, and Makasi, five, police sources disclosed yesterday.
The man was arrested at his home in La Horquetta, at about 7 pm, on Wednesday, hours after the mother and her children were laid to rest, side by side, at the Industry Public Cemetery, D’Abadie.



In his statement, the man told homicide investigators he killed Vonetta, 31, in a jealous rage and also brutally attacked her sons because they knew him.



The murder suspect claimed he had been in a relationship with Vonetta for a few months earlier this year. They had known each other for several years before they began dating, police reported.



However, Vonetta broke off the relationship, which the man confessed he could not accept.



When she told him she was not in love with him, he became jealous.



“I loved her dearly,” the man reportedly told investigators.



He gave police details of the murders which occurred at Vonetta’s home at Plumbago Avenue, La Horquetta, early last Thursday morning.



The man told police he waited outside Vonetta’s home on Wednesday night and was there when she arrived at about midnight.



She let him in the house and they began to quarrel. He had been calling her all day on Wednesday, which police were able to verify through Vonetta’s phone records.



The man and Vonetta began to struggle when she told him to leave the house and he stabbed her once in the neck.



Her sons ran into her bedroom when they heard her screams, the man said.



He took Makasi to his bedroom and slit his throat. He did the same to Malik in his bedroom.



The suspect told police he could not leave the boys alive because they could identify him.



Deputy Police Commissioner Mervyn Richardson last night confirmed a suspect had been arrested and investigators will approach Director of Public Prosecutions Roger Gaspard for directions on the case.



“The arrest of the suspect is a major breakthrough in the probe and I want to commend all the officers who worked round-the-clock under the supervision of Snr Supt Donald Denoon,” Richardson told Newsday. Denoon is the head of the Homicide Bureau.



The suspect was detained at the Arouca Police Station.During their investigation, police obtained phone records and other evidence which they said linked the suspect to Vonetta.



Investigators said they are close to finding the weapon used in the killings.



The suspect’s fingerprints have reportedly been found on Vonetta’s car, which was found abandoned in Carapo on Thursday night, hours after the three bodies were found in La Horquetta.



The car is now at Camp Cumuto, where SAUTT officers have been carrying out tests.



Police believe the suspect took the car to make it appear as though the murders were connected to a robbery. However, nothing was stolen from the house, leading investigators to believe the killer knew the victims.



Earlier in the investigations, police questioned a 20-year-old man, who alerted them to the bodies when he saw one of Vonetta’s sons on the floor when he went to her home on Thursday afternoon.



Vonetta had visited the 20-year-old man in Chaguanas the day before. Her sons had spent that Wednesday with their father Selvon Reyes at his home in Oropoune Gardens, Piarco. She picked them up at about 8 pm, before heading to her home in La Horquetta where they were later killed.



A relative had also been briefly questioned about the killings.



Vonetta’s mother Joyce Haynes told Newsday yesterday that she was not aware a man was in custody in connection with the three murders, but added she was awaiting word from the police on the status of the investigation.
Read more at www.newsday.co.tt