‘It’s the worst thing ever and I just want my son back’
A grieving mother sobbed in Supreme Court as she described seeing her murdered son’s body lying in the street after he was shot.Roydelle Robinson told the trial of Jay Dill and Devon Hewey, who are accused of the alleged gang-related killing, that she used to drive her son Randy Robinson everywhere because she was concerned for his safety.“There’s craziness on the streets and I didn’t want to lose my son. Our neighbourhood is close to 42nd. We lived like three minutes away from Devon Hewey, and for Randy to go to football training he would have to go across his house. I wish I was driving him that night,” she said.On the night of the murder, March 31 2011, Mr Robinson, 22, was walking up the road near his Border Lane, Devonshire home to meet his father for dinner when he was gunned down. His mother was visiting a neighbour at the time.Recalling events that night, she said: “I came outside, and I remember a girl standing in front of me saying my son’s been hit. I said ‘my son’s at home,’ and I ran to my house to look in Randy’s room.“I remember calling out to him and he didn’t answer, and his room was in darkness. And I just remember running up Border Lane and there was all these people there. And I just saw a white sneaker and a big tall white police officer standing on the road. I asked him was that my son. He called for police assistance, and somebody told me it was my son.”She later identified her son’s body at the hospital.Prosecutor Garrett Byrne told the jury during his opening speech that Mr Robinson was not in a gang but had blood relatives in one, which may be the motive for the murder. He alleged that Mr Dill and Mr Hewey associated with a rival gang [see main story].In answer to questions from Mr Byrne, Ms Robinson said two of her nephews, Sergio Robinson and Vincent “Jerry” Robinson, hung out on Court Street. Asked by Mr Byrne if she saw anything to indicate her nephews were in a gang, Ms Robinson replied: “No, but it’s known that they are supposed to be part of the Parkside gang.”Mr Robinson’s father, Randy Spence, was also quizzed by the prosecutor about Sergio and Jerry Robinson.Mr Spence said he had concerns about his son spending time with them as “I guess at times there was negative behaviour. Not just from them but from the whole group. Other friends as well”.Both Mr Robinson’s parents told the jury they did not believe he was in a gang himself.Ms Robinson also described how her son was very good at football and had played for PHC, North Village and Devonshire Cougars.She said he was “jumped” at a football game at the Wellington Oval in St George’s on November 11 2010. He was a North Village player at the time, but did not participate in the game that day. She recalled seeing him outside the club bar after the incident with Guinness beer all over his white T-shirt.Ms Robinson told the jury she believed three men she saw at the ground — defendant Jay Dill and two other men named Julian Washington and Darrion Simons — were responsible for the attack. She said her son was “not friends” with the men.She saw Mr Dill and Mr Washington running to their motorcycles and confronted them.“I approached Jay Dill first and I asked him if he attacked my son, and his response was ‘no’, and he put his hands up and put his head down,” said Ms Robinson. “I asked him again, and I told him he was lying, and I slapped him upside his head.”Next, she said: “I spotted Julian Washington. I approached him as well. I swung at him and I got stopped by the police”.Then she saw Mr Simons, and confronted him too.“I asked Darrion Simons did he attack my son. He cursed me off and squared his body up like to hit me and I told him ‘hit me’, and the police came again.”Ms Robinson said she put her son in her girlfriend’s car and took him home.She told the jury that following that incident, it was agreed with North Village team bosses that her son “would not play football at Somerset Cricket Club or Devonshire Rec for his own safety”.Ms Robinson said her son worked as a houseman at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital where his supervisor was Sandra Dill — mother of Jay Dill, who is now on trial alongside Mr Hewey.Speaking about her bereavement, Ms Robinson, who also has a daughter, broke down in tears as she said: “He was my son and he was very loving and it’s not nice that I’m left alone by myself. When I get home it's just me; he doesn’t call no more like he used to. Randy used to call me five or six times a day. I don’t know why this happened to him. It’s the worst thing ever and I just want my son back.”Mr Robinson had a son of his own, Xyior Basden, who was just two years old when he was killed.Mr Dill, 23, of Southampton, and Mr Hewey, 24, of Pembroke, deny premeditated murder and using a firearm to commit that crime, and the case continues.