MANCHESTER, JAMAICA – The first court hearing for a Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) service member accused of murdering his romantic partner in a brutal domestic incident in Manchester last week has been rescheduled for Friday, after a last-minute delay pushed the originally scheduled Wednesday appearance.
Twenty-seven-year-old Damanice Tyrone Williamson, the accused soldier, was set to face a preliminary hearing at the Manchester Parish Court this week. But when assembled reporters arrived to cover the high-profile case, the defendant’s legal representative, attorney Norman Godfrey, confirmed that proceedings would be pushed back to the end of the week.
The charges against Williamson stem from the fatal killing of 29-year-old Tanzanya Dunkley, which took place at a residential property in the Three Chains community of Manchester. Authorities confirmed that Williamson has confessed to the killing, which unfolded during a verbal confrontation between the pair. But the details of his confession have sent shockwaves across the island nation: an anonymous police source briefed on the investigation told local media that Williamson claimed an unknown “voice” commanded him to carry out the deadly attack.
According to the police source’s account of the confession, the confrontation began when Dunkley made the decision to end her relationship with Williamson. In response, the soldier grabbed her mobile phone; when Dunkley held onto him to retrieve the device, Williamson says the voice ordered him to kill her. He then picked up a knife and sliced her throat, the confession alleges.
Law enforcement has also released additional chilling details about the moments leading up to the killing. Before the attack, they confirmed, Williamson approached Dunkley’s 12-year-old daughter, told her he needed to speak privately with her mother, and directed the child to go upstairs to the upper level of the family home. Moments later, he murdered Dunkley before fleeing the property.
Neighbors who were in the area that Friday afternoon corroborated the timeline, telling local reporters they heard loud screams coming from the residence around 3 p.m. Shortly after, they saw a man matching Williamson’s description running from the home, his clothing covered in what witnesses described as blood.
In the aftermath of the killing, a second video has also spread widely across Jamaican social media, adding more fuel to public outcry. The footage, which was reportedly filmed inside the Mandeville Police Station after Williamson was taken into custody, shows a man believed to be the accused holding what looks to be a knife, begging responding officers to shoot and kill him on the spot. The clip has now gone viral, drawing tens of thousands of views and intense public comment.
The brutal killing has already reignited long-simmering national conversations about the pervasive crisis of domestic violence in Jamaica, a problem that advocacy groups have repeatedly highlighted as requiring urgent systemic intervention. As the public awaits Williamson’s rescheduled court appearance this Friday, community leaders and anti-violence activists continue to call for greater action to address gender-based harm across the country.