A 46-year-old Layou security guard, grieving the fatal shooting of her son just seven days prior, has made her first court appearance alongside a 22-year-old local man, after the pair were hit with conspiracy and murder charges over the death of a 19-year-old labourer.
Rosia John and Augustus Mathews, a Layou resident, face two formal criminal allegations connected to the killing of Perrance Mathews, a 19-year-old Layou-based labourer. Court documents outline that between April 10 and April 13, 2026, the two defendants conspired to carry out a plan that would have culminated in a murder. The second, more severe charge accuses them of intentionally and maliciously causing Perrance Mathews’ death by shooting him multiple times across his body.
Authorities confirm the alleged crimes took place in Buccament, a coastal community in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. On Friday, April 17, 2026, John and Mathews appeared at Kingstown’s Serious Offences Court for the formal reading of their charges, an event that was captured on video by local media.
The court appearance comes exactly one week after a double shooting in Kingstown’s Stoney Ground neighbourhood that claimed the life of John’s 29-year-old son, Enrique John, also known locally by the nickname Shoubu. Raheem Guy, 22, was also killed in that same April 10, 2026 attack. The overlapping timeline of the two violent incidents — the double killing that left Rosia John bereaved, followed just days later by her being charged in the murder of 19-year-old Perrance Mathews — has cast a spotlight on the surge of violent gun crime impacting the small Caribbean nation.