A shocking violent crime that rocked the Bahamas in late 2024 has reached its legal conclusion, with perpetrator Javon Forbes sentenced to 39 years in prison behind bars — a punishment that left some of victim Vernencha Butler’s family dissatisfied, arguing it did not fit the brutality of his offenses.
The 27-year-old defendant pleaded guilty to three separate charges — murder, rape, and burglary — during a March arraignment, admitting his actions to law enforcement shortly after the November 2022 attack. On Friday, Justice Renae McKay handed down concurrent sentences of 39 years for murder, 25 years for rape, and 20 years for burglary, resulting in a total effective 39-year custodial term. After the verdict was read, Forbes, dressed in a plain white shirt and bound in shackles and handcuffs, was escorted out of the courtroom by armed police officers.
Butler, a 72-year-old seamstress and mother of three, had already endured an extraordinary series of hardships in the year leading up to her death. She had survived a battle with breast cancer only to lose her father and two sisters within 12 months, and was even unable to attend the January funeral of her first sister because she was recovering from a medical procedure. The November 22 birthday dinner for her 75-year-old elder sister was meant to be a rare moment of joy for the grieving family. Relatives dropped Butler off at her Ross Corner apartment, where she lived with her son, at around 11 p.m. that night; her final known act was a phone call to her sister confirming she had arrived home safely.
Forbes, who was 25 at the time of the killing, had been released from prison just eight months earlier, in March 2024, after serving a sentence for prior vagrancy and housebreaking convictions. Security camera footage captured him wandering the neighborhood shirtless and barefoot, loitering outside a local restaurant and bar, before the attack. Investigators confirmed he appeared to be under the influence of an illegal drug when he targeted Butler’s home, and he later admitted he was high on MDMA, commonly known as molly, when he climbed through an unlocked front room window to gain entry.
Three hours after Butler was dropped off, her son and grandson returned home from a separate event, where her son had worked as a deejay. They found the usually unlocked deadbolt bolted from inside. After forcing the lock open, they made a horrifying discovery: Butler’s undressed body lying on the living room floor, while a naked Forbes sat calmly in her bedroom. The two men physically detained Forbes before a neighbor was alerted for help. Next-door resident Angela Curry recalled being woken by loud banging, when Butler’s grandson frantically told her: “Grammy dead, and one man was inside raping her.”
While family members initially saw no obvious external trauma, an autopsy confirmed Butler had been sexually assaulted, suffered severe internal injuries, and died from asphyxia by strangulation. The murder was the 111th homicide recorded in the Bahamas that year, coming just days after the discovery of the body of 12-year-old schoolgirl Adriel Moxey. The back-to-back brutal slayings sent shockwaves across the small island nation and reignited long-simmering public demands to reinstate capital punishment, which has not been used in the country for decades.
Then-Police Commissioner Clayton Fernander, who noted the victim’s family roots in San Salvador, said the case affected him personally. Investigators also revealed a troubling detail: multiple witnesses observed Forbes loitering in the neighborhood the night of the attack, but none contacted law enforcement to report the suspicious activity. For neighbors, the attack shattered the sense of safety in the previously quiet two-storey apartment complex. Longtime resident Curry said the community had never experienced such violence before, and she is now pushing the property owner to install additional outdoor lighting, security cameras, and window bars to prevent similar attacks. “It’s puzzling how he got in here,” Curry said, adding that she now feels constant fear living in her home.
Speaking in the days after the killing, Butler’s nephew Sherwin Johnson said the family had never endured such trauma and could barely process the shock. His grandmother, Butler’s elder sister whose birthday celebration they had just attended, has been unable to cope with the grief. “I’m processing a lot of anger and hurt, you know,” Johnson said at the time. “Because it wasn’t like she was sick. It wasn’t like it was a car accident or anything.” Johnson has repeatedly stated that Forbes deserved the death penalty for his crime, a view shared by other members of the family who echoed that sentiment after Friday’s sentencing.
When Forbes was first arraigned days after the murder, he appeared in court with bandages covering both arms. His defense attorney Mark Rolle told the court that other detainees at the Grove Police Station had threatened Forbes, and he had already been assaulted before being placed in protective isolation. “He says he was told what will happen when he arrives at the prison,” Rolle told the court. Assistant Chief Magistrate Carolyn Vogt-Evans subsequently ordered that Forbes be held in isolation for his own safety throughout his detention at the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services, an order that remains in place.
Outside the courthouse after Friday’s sentencing, Butler’s family spoke through tears, saying they felt a measure of relief that the long, painful legal process had finally concluded with a guilty finding. Still, several family members reiterated their view that 39 years was not a harsh enough sentence for the brutal killing of the soft-spoken, beloved grandmother, who is survived by her three children.
