NASSAU, BAHAMAS —The Court of Appeal has affirmed the conviction and 55-year prison sentence of a man found guilty of the brutal 2016 murder of a pregnant school teacher.
The appellate court has refused the application by Alister Williams for an extension of time in which to appeal his convictions for murder and robbery. Williams was sentenced to 55 years for the September 9, 2016 murder of Marisha Bowen Bowen, originally from Guyana, who was found lying in a bed soaked in blood in her home located at Red Sea Road, New Providence. She was found with a belt around her neck, stab wounds and other injuries about her body.
Williams was also sentenced to 10 years for robbery, taking away the two years spent on remand. Both sentences took effect from May 24, 2018 and run concurrently. Williams on December 6, 2021 filed an application for an extension of time within which to appeal against his convictions and sentences.
Williams contended that the trial judge erred, having found the records of interview and their video recordings were inadmissible due to oppression, by failing to rule the medical consent form to draw blood inadmissible due to oppression; by failing to uphold a no case submission; and by failing to give the jury adequate directions on the oral admissions made to police officers.
In a judgment delivered by Justice Sir Michael Barnett, the court noted that William’s intended appeal was based on the premise that the judge must also have regarded the consent as not having been given voluntarily.
“However, Counsel for the intended appellant never objected to the admission of the DNA evidence on the basis that the blood was taken for the intended appellant as a result of oppression. Counsel never asked the court to exercise its discretion under section 178 of the Evidence Act to exclude the DNA evidence. He agreed to the admission of the DNA evidence before the voir dire was completed and before the Judge ruled that the record of interviews and video recordings were not admissible,” the court ruled.
It added: “The no-case submission is unsustainable. There was ample evidence that warranted allowing the matter to go to the jury. The intended appellant was in possession of items belonging to the deceased and her son. There was evidence of oral admissions made by the intended appellant. Also, there was DNA evidence.
“Having regard to the evidence, the decision of the learned Judge to reject the no-case submission was not wrong. The judge’s omission to give the jury specific directions regarding the oral admissions made to the police, although regrettable, is not fatal and does not make the conviction unsafe as this was not the only evidence against the intended appellant.”
Having found that the DNA evidence against Williams was “compelling”, the court said that it had “no lurking doubt” as to the safety of the verdict against Williams and refused his application for an extension of time to appeal the convictions and sentences.
