Prisoner charged with murder of cellmate

Twenty-one year old Jason Williams, who was on remand at Hattieville Prison, was scheduled to appear in Magistrate’s Court today, for a shooting incident in 1999. Instead he was escorted to the court and charged with the murder of his cellmate Raymond Flowers on Saturday. Flowers received a deep knife wound to his right armpit during an argument in cell 7B. According to prison officials there was no delay in getting Flowers to the K.H.M.H., but today Wayne Moody, the Programme Coordinator for the Department of Corrections pointed fingers at the medical institution saying that they were negligent in treating Flowers. Moody said although Flowers had lost a considerable amount of blood, the hospital did not give the patient any transfusion. A postmortem examination revealed that Flowers died of hypovolemic shock due to external bleeding. Family members told News Five on Monday that they were told by hospital staff that Flowers was left waiting at the accident and emergency ward and literally bled to death. Acting Superintendent of the K.H.M.H. Dr. John Waight categorically denies the allegation and says that Flowers was treated immediately and was under observation when he took a turn for the worse. Waight said when he saw Flowers, the patient was not bleeding externally. He says the full details of the postmortem report should indicate to the hospital if the patient had excessive internal bleeding and whether any vital tissue had been damaged. It will also tell them what if any treatment could have saved his life. Meanwhile there have been a number of other allegations surrounding the reason why Flowers was stabbed. In November it was alleged that Flowers may have been responsible for the murder of Raymond “Feng” Williams, the brother of Jason Williams, while Flowers was on a weekend pass. Although it was investigated and established that Flowers was in prison on the night of the killing, today there are reports that the accusation may have triggered the dispute between the cellmates. Sources also tell News Five, however, that Williams told police the deceased tried to have inappropriate relations with him. Police declined to comment on the specifics of the statement but confirmed that Williams did give them several reasons for the attack. Late this evening Flowers’ family told News Five that they understand that the argument started after Flowers tried to get Williams to fold up some clothes. Flowers was serving a fifty-year jail sentence for a number of offenses including manslaughter, escape and the possession of unlicensed firearms.