‘Dangerous’ man jailed for back-to-back violent attacks

(CNS): A man described as a danger to the public and a high risk of repeat violent offences was convicted in 2022 of brutally attacking two different men during the course of a week in November 2021. Howard Lee Ebanks (38) was jailed in December 2023 for 27 months, according to a ruling recently posted on the judicial website. Ebanks had pleaded guilty to GBH and wounding in relation to the different assaults, one of which was said to be a revenge attack and the other in rage.

Ebanks is accused of assaulting Devin Anthony Ebanks outside Kelly’s bar in West Bay on 14 November 2021 and then Nicholas Derrick McLaughlin outside Hell Gas station just four days later in an unrelated attack.

The maximum sentence for each offence was seven years, but Ebanks was on probation in relation to a suspended sentence for a previous violent attack in September 2018, which took place on Seven Mile Public Beach. Ebanks had argued with another man over money, which was caught on TV but showed the victim walking away from the confrontation.

However, Ebanks approached with an iron pipe that he used to hit the victim, who fell down. The defendant then left the scene only to return with a machete but was restrained by another person who took him away.

In the two cases in November, Ebanks claimed that the first happened because he was triggered by two major past incidents: a home invasion where he was staying and the murder of his brother, whose killer has never been charged. However, Ebanks has claimed he was murdered by the victim of this assault.

Again, the attack was caught on CCTV. Ebanks had launched a very violent assault on Devin Ebanks, who was sitting outside the West Bay Bar and drunk.

The man had argued over comments about Howard Ebanks’ brother, and as they did, he broke a Heineken beer bottle and stepped towards the victim as though he was going to cut him. He had his right hand up in the air and was gesticulating, according to the evidence presented to the court.

The defendant then advanced upon the victim and punched him in the face several times. He grabbed the victim by the shirt/throat and threw him head-first into the wall of the bar, at which point the victim became very limp, and he appeared to have passed out.

Several people were standing around and appeared to be shouting at Ebanks to stop, but he ignored them and, at times, approached them in a threatening manner. He walked across the street, rushed back to the victim, who was still out cold on the ground, and kicked him in the head and chest several times.

He then stomped on his head even though the victim was not moving and appeared to be lifeless. The defendant then went back across the street and, again in an aggressive and hasty manner, returned to the victim, picked up a metal stool and struck him in his head while he was lying there.

The man was eventually taken to hospital, where he was treated for serious blunt force trauma injuries as well as abrasions and contusions all over his head and face, including his eye and mouth.

Ebanks was not arrested until 18 November, and when cautioned, he replied, “Yes, I beat Devin last Saturday night, sir. He killed my brother enuh, sir, and it hurts”. (“Enuh” is the word used in the ruling.)

However, before his arrest, he had attacked his second victim after a row over a receipt. Ebanks was working at the West Bay liquor store Pop-a-Top when Derrick McLaughlin came in, bought some beer, and asked for a receipt. Ebanks said the till wasn’t working properly, and he didn’t need one as he had paid the exact amount. The customer insisted, but after arguing and threatening each other, Ebanks hit McLaughlin with a metal bar on his forearm.

Another man broke things up and took the victim away. He then headed to Hell Gas Station, where he sat drinking his beers. But a short while later, Ebanks drove by. He turned his vehicle around and into the gas station. He stopped, got out of the car, pulled a machete from it and began chopping the victim repeatedly in his head. The victim struggled with the defendant and was able to disarm him. The machete fell, and a third party picked it up and secured it. The defendant got back into his vehicle and left the location.

The machete was later handed over to the police. Ebanks was arrested later that day and admitted to the attack. The victim was taken to the hospital, where he was treated for two chop wounds to his scalp as well as several more to his wrist, hand and thumb.

Devin Ebanks said he continues to experience debilitating pain from a punctured eardrum he sustained, and he is no longer able to work. However, he was reluctant to speak about the assault as he was fearful of the defendant and possible reprisal, while McLaughlin declined to offer any information to the court about the longer-term impact of the attack he sustained.

The defendant has nineteen previous convictions, almost all for drug offences, as well as the assault for which he was on a suspended sentence at the time these two violent attacks were committed.

According to a social inquiry report which was conducted in February last year, he began using drugs and alcohol and getting into trouble with the law at an early age. He was sentenced to eight years in jail in 2008 for the importation of cocaine. Ebanks was said to have had a long history of alcohol and drug use.

In 2002 he was involved in a violent incident in the home of his brother, where a man was killed. In 2005 his brother was shot and killed outside their mother’s house. Ebanks has long held a belief that Devin Ebanks was involved in the murder of his brother. On the night Howard Ebanks attacked him, Devin Ebanks had said, “I gonna lay you down beside him,” which angered him.

Ebanks said he was intoxicated at the time and would not have behaved that way if he had been sober. He expressed regret at what he had done, given the situation that the defendant found himself in, but said the victim had brought this on himself.

Ebanks said he had gone after his second victim after he was “triggered” when he felt blood on his face. He admitted to searching out the victim. The fact that he was suffering from PTSD was seen as a contributing factor, but his behaviour was still impacted by the earlier unrelated assault four days before.

However, the probation officer said that this was a targeted attack perpetrated against an unarmed individual with no consideration given to the possible consequences. The officer said that while Ebanks expressed some understanding of the seriousness of the offence, he didn’t believe the victim suffered any long-term psychological harm.

“This lack of victim awareness is concerning, and believing that no serious harm was done may mean that the client will not be deterred from acting in a similar manner in future,” the social worker warned.

Justice Cheryll Richards took an in-depth psychiatric report into account when considering the sentence. She said the attack on Devin Ebanks was vicious and brutal and also persistent and prolonged. In the second case, the harm caused was not as serious, but it was still a prolonged assault using a machete.

After considering all of the mitigating factors relating to the psychiatric and social inquiry reports, the circumstances of the case and Ebanks’ early admissions, she arrived at a sentence of 18 months for each of the offences. Despite being entirely separate offences, the judge ordered that only part of the second sentence would be concurrent.

“It is appropriate for there to be consecutive sentences in this case,” the judge stated in her ruling. “Given the principles of totality and proportionality, one-half of the sentence on Indictment 17/22 is to run consecutively to the sentence on Indictment 24/22,” she added.

As a result, instead of facing three years in jail, Ebanks was handed a sentence of two years and three months with time served taken into account.

See the full ruling on the judicial website, Indictment No: 17 & 24 of 2022

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