Young West Indian Housewife Gets 21 Years Behind Bars for Killing Richard Husbands After Her Affair With Younger Man

By Tony Best

Brushing aside pleas for forgiveness and mercy, a Long Island judge has sent a young West Indian housewife to prison for 21 years for murdering her husband.

Kelly Chadee- Forbes, 29, who admitted in a Mineola court that she had strangled her 50 year old husband, Michael Forbes, but pleaded self defense was hit with the tough sentence by Judge Jerald Carter who told the Trinidadian she must pay for the crime.

“I don’t know if this is going to satisfy Mr. Forbes’ family,” Judge Carter said in open court. “Nothing I can do will bring Mr. Forbes back. But I can assure them that for the next 21 years, you will be paying for your actions.”

Carter could have sentenced her to 8 ? years or as many as 25 years after she was convicted of manslaughter in June.

Before sending her to prison, Judge Carter heard a long tale of woe from Kelly, one that ranged from being a victim of a kidnapping, assault and rape in her native Trinidad to beatings by her husband which she claimed began immediately after their marriage.

“My life in Trinidad and Tobago was not easy,” she said. “When I was 19 years old, I was kidnapped and assaulted at gunpoint. A few years later, I became pregnant with my beautiful daughter, Kadeshja.

“Her father and I were not married, so I became a single parent.” She told the court. “When I was 14, I was raped. Thereafter, I moved to the United States to live with my brothers. I thought my daughter would have a better life and more opportunity.”

It was while the beautician was working at a salon that she met the man her husband.

“He pursued me with flowers, gifts and trips,” she said. “He promised me and my daughter a better life. He said he wanted us to settle down and build a family together. I believed him.”

But shortly after they walked down the aisle, Michael, she charged, became a changed man.

“He tried to isolate me from my family and friends,” she said. “He didn’t want me to work and he didn’t want me to spend time with my daughter. He began to abuse me emotionally, mentally and physically. He told me not to go to see my brothers, because he had enemies in Brooklyn.”

Then came the fateful day, Thanksgiving, a time of joy.

She claimed that her six-foot, 250-pound husband was in a jealous rage when he allegedly tried to wrap a heavy electrical cord around her neck. She said she kicked him in the groin, disabling him and then wrapped the cord around his neck and killed him.

“I survived by the Grace of God and his mercy,” she said. “He grabbed me and tried to put the cord around me a second time. I was afraid for my life and my daughter’s life. And I know in my heart that I am alive today because God gave me the strength to fight Michael off.”

But the dead man’s mother, Aretha Forbes, had a simple explanation for her daughter-in-law’s action.

“It was greed,” she told reporters. “It was over money, money, money. She wanted his money.”

Apparently, Michael had lots of it. The successful businessman ran a successful barbershop in Brooklyn, was involved in real estate and was getting ready to open two fast-food restaurants when he was murdered.

Michael’s father, Willie Forbes, had a different explanation for his death. His son, he said, “loved this woman and that’s what got him killed.”

According to evidence presented in court Kelly waited for an hour after killing her hubby to call police to tell them of the tragedy. But in between the murderous act and the call to the cops, she found time to tell her lover, Jeremy Bryant, about it, admitting “I did it.”

She then called her parents and other close relatives before informing the police.

When the cops rushed to the scene, Kelly reportedly told them she had slept on a couch in the couple’s $800,000 waterfront home after they had quarreled the night before.

He was always jealous of her, she said, even to the point of beating her and resenting the way she acted with her own seven year old daughter from a previous relationship.

To court observers and the prosecution that account seemed far-fetched because few, if any one, could figure out how the petite woman of less than 150 pounds was able to subdue her big strapping husband. Some investigators speculated that she may have attacked him while he was sleeping or may even have drugged him.

When her lover, Jeremy Bryant, 31, took the stand, he told the judge and jury about a telephone call he received from Kelly on the day of the murder and when he couldn’t understand what she was saying, he asked her to send him a text message. It came within minutes and it was to the point: “he dead.”

Knowing that she meant her husband, Bryant advised her to call the police.

“No,” she allegedly replied, “I did it.”

Bryant, a former airline flight attendant, met the young woman on the Internet a month after her “Caribbean” style wedding to Michael and they immediately began an intimate affair.

When asked in court if she had ever told him that her husband had beaten her, Bryant said no. Just as important, he never saw any evidence of it on her body when they were in or out of bed.

Under cross examination, he said that she had never complained about domestic violence and he hadn’t seen any evidence of it.

Relatives who also gave evidence made somewhat similar statements. She had never them of physical abuse.

Michael Canty, the prosecutor, offered the court a different version of what he said took place.

In love with a younger man, “she grew angry. She grew frustrated. And she strangled her husband to death,” Canty said.

The jury heard that Michael was a hard-working man in love with his wife but may have become suspicious about her behavior. He left home early in the morning and returned late at night in order to earn the money to keep his wife and step-daughter in a style of living to which they had become accustomed after the marriage. She had stopped working after the couple had gotten married.

Before the sentencing, Kelly asked for forgiveness from the Forbes family.

“I pray for forgiveness. I hope that in time, they (the Forbes family) will understand that I acted in self-defense,” she said.

Turning to the judge she pleaded: “I pray you show mercy and understanding when you sentence me.”
Obviously he wasn’t swayed.

 

NY CARIB NEWS HEADLINES

 

1. Jamaican And Caribbean Olympic Victories Bring “Heaven” On Earth To Caribbean Immigrants In New York, Proud To Be West Indian

2. St. Vincent & The Grenadines-Economist Lauds Consultations In Diaspora

3. Caribbean Politics-Communiqué

4. Caribbean- Four Caribbean Sates Eye Closer Political And Economic Union

5. Elections To Win Or Lose

6. Harder Times For Caribbean Economic Recession In U.S. And Slowdown In Britain And Europe Expected To Take Heavy Toll But Countries In Region Unlikely To Experience Economic Crisis

7. Tropical Storm Fay Claims Six Lives in northern Caribbean

8. Jamaica Laws Coming To Deal With Tobacco

9. Trinidad Government Urged To State Position On Death Penalty

10. Young West Indian Housewife Gets 21 Years Behind Bars for Killing Richard Huabands After Her Affair With Younger Man

11. But, As Usually Things Are Not Always What They Seem At First Glance

12. Jamaica’s First Lady On A Mission For Children

13. CACCI Prepares To Celebrate 23 Years Of Service

14. US-TERRORISM- Court Overturns Ruling In Case Of Accused In Cubana Bombing

15. St Vincent Police To Get Help From New York Counterparts