PORT MARIA, ST MARY — It was a moment of raw, unfiltered grief for Phillipa Walker last Friday, as the man who murdered her three-year-old son and left her and multiple others injured in a brutal May 2024 attack was sentenced to 15 years behind bars. Even as the court handed down the punishment, the heartbroken mother could not find closure – telling reporters the sentence was far too lenient to protect the public.
Walker told the Jamaica Observer she fears that when the 33-year-old attacker, Devon Williams, is released, his age and strength will leave him capable of killing again. “When he is out — you see how big and strong he is? — I can feel it when he gets out, he is going to come back and kill again,” she lamented through tears.
Williams, who had recently relocated to Jamaica from the United States where he resided with his mother, was originally handed a 20-year prison term by the St Ann Circuit Court. The sentence was reduced by five years to account for his guilty plea and a psychiatric evaluation that confirmed he suffers from severe mental instability.
The attack unfolded on the afternoon of May 29, 2024, as Walker walked home from school with her three children – three-year-old Asher Campbell, 9-year-old sister, and an older sibling – in the Pagee community of Port Maria, St Mary. Armed with an iron pipe and a knife, Williams launched an unprovoked assault on the group that left toddler Asher dead. Walker, her 9-year-old daughter, and five other bystanders were also wounded in the attack.
Court documents reveal that Williams’ mental health struggles date back to 2016, when he first began requiring psychiatric medication. In statements given to the St Mary Parish Court, Williams’ father told authorities that after his son returned to Jamaica, he left his prescription medication behind in the U.S. While Williams’ mother shipped the medication to Jamaica, it never arrived before the deadly attack took place.
Initially, Williams told the court he intended to represent himself during trial proceedings. However, presiding judge Nicole Kellier ordered that a court-appointed attorney be assigned to him due to his documented mental health condition, and he was represented throughout the trial by defense attorney Dane Marsh.
In her post-sentencing interview, Walker said the tragedy could have been entirely avoided if the community had been notified of Williams’ unmanaged mental illness before the attack. “Had the community been warned about Williams’ ill health people would have been wary of him. Maybe my baby would be alive,” she said, her anger and grief plain on her face.
Asher was Walker’s youngest child, the last of her six children, and the pain of his loss remains raw six months after his death. She recalled that Asher dreamed of becoming a soldier, and would have dressed up for his school’s recent Career Day in a military outfit – a future that will now never come to pass. “When I see the other babies going to school, especially on Career Day, in their cute outfits, my Asher would have dressed up as a soldier, as that was what he wanted,” she repeated through sobs.
The murder has destroyed the entire family, Walker explained. Asher’s father has been so consumed by grief that he has refused to cut his hair since the attack – a small, telling sign of his pain. “When Asher was around and his father wanted a trim, no matter how I told him, [he would ignore me]. It would be the baby that would say, ‘Daddy, come let’s go to the barber.’ He’s hurting badly,” Walker said.
Walker, who still bears the physical scar from the attack on her own body, says her mental and emotional health has been shattered. She has developed severe sleep disturbances and relies on medication to cope, but says the drugs do nothing to ease her constant pain. “My nerves are shattered. I have to tell myself I get old before I become young,” she shared. “My baby was innocent, he deserved to grow up.”
Walker recalled that Williams showed no emotion during the attack, and argued that he should have received a life sentence long enough that he would be old and too weak to harm anyone if he is ever released. “He should have gotten a time [in prison] when him ready to come out he is old and feeble and he can’t hurt anyone else,” she said.