Card game turns violent, player stabbed in heart

| 16/09/2016 | 43 Comments

Cayman News Service(CNS): Orlando Graham (36), a Jamaican national from George Town, was found guilty on Friday of intentionally wounding a former friend following an argument over a card game that turned violent. Graham was remanded in custody after he was convicted of stabbing Prentice Brown in the heart following a game of Rummy in January, when Graham lost money and accused his victim of cheating. Brown, also a Jamaican national living in George Town, had gone to the shared house where Graham lived to play dominoes and cards with a group of people.

During the trial the jury heard that the group of men and women were playing for cash. Both Brown and Graham were armed with knives, which they pulled out when they got into the argument and began hurling insults over the card table.

Graham demanded that Brown return the $50 he had lost but Brown refused. The argument escalated as Graham blocked the door to prevent Brown from leaving. However, one of the other men playing cards, who was described as “housing the card game”, gave Graham $50 from his own money in an effort to defuse the situation and avoid trouble.

As a result Brown, who admitted pulling out his knife first, put it back in his pocket and believed that the situation had been diffused, an account that was corroborated by the man who paid Graham.

Brown said that as he made his way to leave, Graham began hurling more insults, left the room where the cards were being played and entered the corridor. Then he came after him, still armed with his knife. Brown said that in the ensuing scuffle Graham stabbed him in the chest and he fell through a door into another room, where Graham’s baby mother and her sister were. Brown told the court they were the ones who helped him and got him to hospital.

Brown was critically injured, having been stabbed in the heart, and required emergency surgery to save his life. It took him many months to recover as he sustained various complications as a result of the injury.

When Graham was arrested later that same morning, he claimed that he had stabbed Brown in self-defence because after getting his money back, Brown had continued insulting him and then had come after him, arms raised and with his knife in his hand. But during the trial Graham claimed that it was an accident, as Brown had lunged at him and landed on his knife.

Both men told the court they had been carrying knives for their protection. Graham also noted that he was a witness in another criminal case where the people involved had threatened his life.

The jury of four women and three men took less than two hours to find Graham guilty of wounding with intent and as a result he was remanded in custody to HMP Northward. He is due to be sentenced Thursday.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Tags:

Category: Courts, Crime

Comments (43)

Trackback URL | Comments RSS Feed

  1. Anonymous says:

    Why should we have to pay to imprison this man? Send him back home to Jamaica to spend time in a real prison.

  2. Tsk tsk tsk says:

    Go fish…

  3. Anonymous says:

    Deport them all

  4. Anonymous says:

    snap can be frustrating….

  5. Sharkey says:

    This issue is something for us all to think about. I remember when we had real good Jamaicans living in Cayman that would help you before they hurt you , and we never heard of such a thing like this happening. I am just wondering what are the reasons for this kind of behavior ?

    Could it be that Caymanians and Expats are all starting to feel the same PINCH of life?

    • Anonymous says:

      No. Since Ivan we have imported a lot of low level Jamaicans. The ones who know nothing other than disorder and confusion. They have no respect for marital vows, traffic laws ,queues, nothing. They come with their mediocrity at all levels.

  6. Anonymous says:

    The Premier is in charge of Immigration. Perhaps he should explain how and why so many persons who are plainly, on balance, of no positive benefit to our society, are being allowed to come and remain here.

  7. Anonymous says:

    We invite them because you dont want to clean your own yard.

    • Anonymous says:

      Nonsense. There are many honest, non violent people available to do any work that we do not have people available for.

    • Anonymous says:

      Or, 7:08, pump your gas, do your plumbing, electrical and a/c work, car body repairs, porters jobs at the hospital, security at the doors of banks, garbage pick up for the Department of Environmental Health and a host of other jobs where these awful people are keeping us eager to work Caymanians out of jobs. Ezzard, any comment?

      • Anonymous says:

        Are you seriously trying to suggest that all jamaicans are criminal scum bags like this pair of idiots? Get Back in your box. My plumber would be mortified at the behaviour of these morons. Plenty of decent, hard working people would be happy to come here, get some work and abide by normal social behaviour – these guys we dont need.

    • Anonymous says:

      Plenty of honest and non violent persons are available and willing to come to Cayman and clean my yard, if I cannot find a local person.

    • Anonymous says:

      Did not invite them, Mac gave them status to get votes.

  8. Anonymous says:

    gee i lost, lets get all stabby.

    It’s 50 dollars, man…..if you can’t afford to lose it. Don’t play.

    And if churches can have bingo’s and raffles. Card games have to be considered legal too. And numbers. Ect ect.

    All of it, is a form of gambling. No matter what the “cause” is for.

    Or else, I can start a casino, and as long as i donate some of the winnings to charity. it’s A okay then?

    Please………hypocrasy at it’s finest.

  9. Level 6 Sorcerer says:

    This is why you should play online games instead. If you get angry, worst you can do is slam down your controller or smash up your PS4. You can’t actually touch the person because they’re in some other part of the world.

    We should start an online petition to band in-person games. I am just kidding. I hope the guy that got stabbed will be okay soon.

  10. Question says:

    Why was no one charged with gambling? They all admitted it!

  11. The chickens coming home to roost says:

    Another side effect of the cheap labor market we have created! These people turn to gambling, drugs, prostitution etc to supplement their income and now we see what happens. Just drive by the bars frequented by these expats on a Friday and you will get a good idea of the organized criminal activity they participate in. There are many Caymanians involved as well both a customers and providers!

  12. Anonymous says:

    Jamaicans

  13. Anonymous says:

    Only the best for Cayman…..

  14. Just saying says:

    Where are all the Jamaican comments?

  15. Anonymous says:

    This particularly nationality is destroying our country, we need to stop importing cheat labour (criminals).

    • Anonymous says:

      Not only Jamaicans are ruining Cayman but honestly speaking this country need to work closely with other countries and organizations to rule out criminals from other countries taking up residency here. The USDOJ.gov is a good site to visit and search thru their press release or just type a nationality and it would wake up our Immigration department and the government as to how many time deported individuals have reentered the USA after being deported and the only way they were able to be identified was due to fingerprints.

    • anonymous says:

      5:29am, so what are you going to do with the lazy criminal caymanian? stop importing them too? stuupid!

  16. Roger Kenny says:

    You’ve got to know when to hold ’em
    Know when to fold ’em
    Know when to walk away
    And know when to run

  17. Anonymous says:

    Deportation order? In fact, can we please deport everyone involved? Gambling, having concealed weapons, threatening violence, operating a common gaming house, etc. etc.

    Why are we inviting these people to live among us? Why do we keep them when they show their true colors?

    • Anonymous says:

      What’s happening here is a real display of criminality. Lowering our way of life to ghetto style mentality. They stay long enough to become ward of the state. Why are we encouraging this type of behavior to spread and make us look bad? Is immigration really performing or carrying ther duties?
      Time for a thorough cleansing to remove undesirables from here, now. The U.K., Canada, and the US are diligently going through the process of deportation, when will we take note and follow,

    • Just saying says:

      Amen and Amen.

    • gray matter. says:

      I agree , including the Police who F@%&@d up the rape case.

    • Anonymous says:

      25 narrow minded people liked this lol. You can’t just deport everyone, no one is going to want to live on the island if it becomes any more rigid. There is a balance, of course you should deport serious criminals, but you deport one criminal and two more get approved for work permits. The way to prevent crime is to create some social programs so the poorest people on the island can get a little assistance. The ABSENCE of money is the root of all evil. These people have families they send the money to, kids to get lunch money to. Money on that island turns people into animals. Special.

      • Anonymous says:

        You fail to understand that it is not the job of the Cayman Islands Governments or the role of the Caymanian people to provide social services support and economic resources to foreign nationals who refuse to participate as productive and law abiding members of our community.

    • Anonymous says:

      Until you realise that work permit revenue is more valuable to the Cayman Islands Government than the well-being of the citizenry, then you will understand.

      What we really need to do is deport the sell-out elected representatives.

    • Jaymanian says:

      Keep them in Cayman. We don’t want those kinds back here in JA.

      • Anonymous says:

        Yes, Cayman will be happy to keep them when we finish the city with a trap door that we are building over the Cayman “Drop Off”. We will gladly take the honors to keep them thus giving JA and the rest if the world a break. Soon come poster Jaymanian.

Leave a Reply to Roger Kenny Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.