{"id":2057,"date":"2019-01-09T17:18:14","date_gmt":"2019-01-09T17:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/westernmirror.com\/?p=2057"},"modified":"2019-01-09T17:18:17","modified_gmt":"2019-01-09T17:18:17","slug":"fatal-friendship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/?p=2057","title":{"rendered":"Fatal friendship"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Michael Nattoo<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 Staff Reporter<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just hours before the words \u201cHe\u2019s dead\u201d completely\nshattered her world, Joan Stennett was introduced to two of her son\u2019s closest\nfriends, one of whom would later be suspected of killing him. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
An emotional Joan Stennett is overcome with grief during an interview with the Western Mirror<\/strong><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Deceased 20-year-old University of Technology student, Demar Stennett, was to have one last hurrah with his friends before returning to Kingston on Sunday for school. When, however, he did not return home after a night of partying, Joan did not consider that one of the friends, who had, the night before, called her \u201cMommy\u201d, would literally cut her beloved son\u2019s life short.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Information reaching the Western Mirror<\/strong> is that Demar\nStennett\u2019s body was discovered along Miriam Way main road, Barnett Oval, St.\nJames, around 6:15 Sunday morning, suffering from what appeared to be multiple\nstab wounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

THE DAY BEFORE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an emotional interview with the Western Mirror<\/strong>,\nJoan Stennett revealed the moments leading up to her son\u2019s untimely demise,\nfrom when she first met his friends, to the moment she learnt he had been\nmurdered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After running a few errands in town on Saturday, Stennett\ninstructed her son to meet her at a bank. \u201cWhen he came there, he came there\nwith two friends. He introduced me to them and I said \u2018Hi, how are you?\u2019\u201d Of\nthat brief introduction, Stennett explained, she remembered being familiar with\nthe names of the friends, one in particular.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe one who later killed him,\u201d a tear-choked Stennett said,\n\u201cI remembered his name because my son spoke about him to me before \u2013 that he\nhad been going through some challenges at home or something like that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stennett further shared that following the introductions,\nDemar revealed that his friends would be taking him out later that night, as a\nsort of unwinding before he would need to dive back into his studies as a\nbudding Computer Programmer. \u201cSo, following all of that, as well as some other\nthings we had to take care of in town, we all \u2013 including the one that killed\nmy son \u2013 came back to my house,\u201d the grieving mother explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the Aruba Terrace residence in Cornwall Court, Montego\nBay, observing the happenings, Stennett had no reason to suspect that anything\ntragic would later befall her son. They were watching movies while she, as a\nbelated birthday gift from her son, was getting her hair done. \u201cWhen I checked\nthe time, it was 1:10 in the morning, so I asked him, \u2018Demar, you sure you want\nto go out this late?\u2019\u201d, Stennett asked, remembering that her son and his\nfriends had plans to go party at Pier 1. \u201c\u2019Mom, this is the time when Pier 1 is\nhot,\u2019\u201d he responded, before walking over to her and giving her a hug. \u201cHe\nhugged me and said \u2018Happy birthday, mom! I love you!\u2019 and the guy got up too\nand said \u2018Happy birthday, mom, happy birthday!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Demar then headed out with his friends, and Stennett began\nmaking preparations for bed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018IT SOUNDS LIKE HE WAS HAVING A GOOD TIME\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBefore falling asleep, I called him,\u201d Stennett shared.\n\u201c\u2019Mom, we\u2019re at KFC, we\u2019re at KFC!\u2019 he said. It sounds like he was having a\ngreat time.\u201d Stennett wanted Demar to get in touch with the person who had done\nher hair, as she needed to make some adjustments. \u201c\u2019I\u2019ll get in touch with her\nmom, I will.\u2019 After he told me that,\u201d a crying Joan Stennett said, \u201cI\u2026 I went\nto sleep. I went to sleep.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stennett awoke later that morning, sometime after six, and\nrealizing that she hadn\u2019t heard her son, she started to make certain checks. \u201cI\nlooked through the window for the vehicle and it wasn\u2019t there, so I thought,\n\u2018Maybe he\u2019s at his brother\u2019s house\u2019. So, I took some clothes that he had here\nand put them in the [washing] machine and I said I would wash them because they\nwould dry by the time he\u2019d be ready to go up.\u201d After doing all that, however,\nStennett received a call from Demar\u2019s brother, stating that he had met in an\naccident. \u201cI said \u2018Lord Jesus Christ! I talked to Demar, I told him not to\ndrive fast, and Demar really inna accident?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conducting investigations of her own, Stennett made a few\ncalls, in which she asked one of the persons called to visit the hospital to\ncheck if he was there. Stennett then called Demar\u2019s father, who revealed that\nhe had just heard the news too. Demar\u2019s father later shared that he got a call\nfrom the police station, and that he was to come down there. \u201cMy neighbour\nbrought me down to the station, and told me that she saw Demar\u2019s friend in\nhandcuffs, so I said \u2018What is he doing in handcuffs?\u2019 So, I told my ex-husband\nthat Demar cannot do jail, because the type of person he is, he wouldn\u2019t last\nin jail, so I started to cry. When I reached the Freeport Police Station, I was\ntold that Demar was not there, and when the person from the hospital called me,\nI was told he wasn\u2019t there either.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At that moment, Stennett witnessed the vehicle in which\nDemar was travelling being brought into the station on a wrecker, and on it,\nshe observed large quantities of blood, particularly around the driver\u2019s\nsection. \u201cIt was all bloodied, and his glasses was inside, and I said \u2018No, this\nnuh look right! Him nuh deh here, and him nuh deh at the hospital. Demar is\ndead! Demar is dead!\u2019 They tried to tell me to not rush to conclusions and to\ncalm down, but then I got a call from my ex-husband.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2019Joan,\u201d he said, \u201c\u2019Demar is dead. He is dead.\u2019 I said, \u201cI\nknow. I know,\u201d she shared. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Breaking down crying, Stennett lamented: \u201cDemar was my everything;\nI could depend on him for anything, and now I\u2026 I can\u2019t believe\u2026\u201d Stennett\nmanaged to say, before becoming consumed by her grief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ENCOUNTERING THE SUSPECT<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the CCU, a police officer and a team of\nsoldiers, conducting patrols under the State of Public Emergency, reached a\nsection of Miriam Way, in the vicinity of the Holy Trinity Church, where they\nobserved a grey MPV Mazda motorcar stationary along the roadway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When they stopped to make enquiries with the young man who\nwas standing outside the car, they were told that the vehicle had developed\nmechanical problems and that he was OK. The lawmen were not satisfied with that\nresponse, and grew suspicious. When they decided to make further enquiries, the\nman ran off in bushes, where he was pursued and caught.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Further details are that the accosted suspect then began\nattacking the police officer, hitting him several times to the face, before he\nwas finally restrained. Taking the suspect back to the vehicle and making\ncloser inspections, security personnel observed what appeared to be blood\nstains around the vehicle. They were reportedly told by the suspect that he and\nDemar Stennett had become embroiled in a dispute which became physical, and a\nknife was brought into play by the deceased. The suspected further alleged that\nhe was acting in self-defense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He then took the soldiers to a location about 50 metres from\nthe car, where the body of Stennet was pointed out in a clump of bushes along\nthe roadway, lying on its back. Stennett\u2019s body was observed to have multiple\nstab wounds to its neck, face, arms, chest and abdomen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was later removed and brought to the Cornwall Regional\nHospital, where he was pronounced dead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe one who later killed him,\u201d a tear-choked Stennett said, \u201cI remembered his name because my son spoke about him to me before \u2013 that he had been going through some challenges at home or something like that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2060,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1060,1057,94,1058,1059,19,20,390,197],"class_list":["post-2057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-cornwall-court","tag-demar-stennett","tag-fatal","tag-friendship","tag-joan-stennett","tag-montego-bay","tag-murder","tag-state-of-public-emergency","tag-university-of-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2057"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2057\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2062,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2057\/revisions\/2062"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}