KINGSTOWN, St Vincent – A 56-year-old local fisherman has been handed a 10-year custodial sentence by a High Court judge in St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) following his conviction for the unlawful killing of his friend, 42-year-old security guard Cameron Alexander. The fatal assault, carried out with a rum bottle, took place amid a casual gathering in late August 2023.
Justice Rickie Burnett, presiding over the case, handed down the penalty to Joel Ashton, a local resident also known by the nickname ‘Goat’. The court ordered that the time Ashton has already spent in pretrial remand be subtracted from his total sentence, a standard provision in the SVG judicial system.
Court documents outline that the fatal incident unfolded between August 26 and September 1, 2023, in Lowmans Bay, a quiet coastal community on the leeward coast of St Vincent. Prosecutors confirmed Ashton caused Alexander’s death through an unlawful violent act.
What began as a friendly social outing between the long-time acquaintances and other companions turned violent after a minor dispute. Alexander and another man had combined their money to buy a pint of rum, and tensions flared when Alexander allegedly took a small bottle of rum from Ashton’s pocket. In a sudden burst of anger, Ashton struck Alexander on the left side of the head with a full glass rum bottle, shattering the container on impact.
A witness who was present at the gathering testified that Alexander did not retaliate immediately after the blow. Instead, the victim simply asked Ashton, “Just so?” before holding his head at an angle and revealing blood flowing from his ear. Alexander was seen walking to the nearby shoreline to rinse the wound before returning to the local shop where the group had gathered, where he noticed additional blood on his neck.
Over the next 48 hours, Alexander’s condition worsened rapidly. On August 28, one of his two children found him unresponsive at his home, foaming at the mouth with active bleeding. He was rushed to the main Milton Cato Memorial Hospital and placed in the Intensive Care Unit for emergency treatment, but he succumbed to his injuries two days later on August 30, 2023.
A post-mortem examination conducted by lead pathologist Dr Ronald Child confirmed the official cause of death as blunt force trauma to the head, directly resulting from the bottle attack.
Ashton did not surrender to law enforcement until nearly four weeks after the incident, turning himself in to police on September 24, 2023. He was held in remand throughout the duration of his trial.
During the sentencing hearing, Giovanni Stapleton, one of Alexander’s two children, delivered a victim impact statement telling the court his father had been his entire world, and that he continues to grieve the loss of his father every day.