The Matura Family’s tormented history with crime and violence

Eleven year old Daniel Matura will be laid to rest on Friday, following services at the church of the Muslim Community Primary School where he was enrolled. For the family, peers and teachers, it is a monumental loss of a promising young man, who wanted to be a B.D.F. soldier. The Matura family was preparing to bury Kaylon Matura, when Daniel was killed on Central American Boulevard near his home. His cousin, who has now been charged with his murder, pulled the trigger at Brandon Taylor in retaliation of Kaylon’s murder. All in all, in the past four years, as many family members have been killed in the unending violence that has followed them.  News Five’s Isani Cayetano looks back at the family’s torment with crime and violence.

Isani Cayetano, Reporting

The consumption of the Matura Village by fire on November 2^nd, 2010, scripture readers would attest, is eerily reminiscent of the Fall of Babylon.  What was once the metropolis for a family of East Indian descent that has occupied this plot of land on Central American Boulevard since the mid-50s is now the vestige of a commonwealth plagued by misfortune.  It’s an analogy that is not meant to offend; rather, it is a parallel of disasters, similar to the events chronicled in the Bible that led to the demise of a nation.

The midday inferno that decimated the home of five families on the property isn’t the Maturas’ first brush with bad luck.  As a matter of fact, the residence came under gunfire in March 2008 when Tyrone ‘Bucket’ Castellanos was murdered.

Marion Ali

Marion Ali, Former News Five Reporter [File: March 31^st, 2008]

“Twenty year old Tyrone Castellanos was standing inside this yard with about four other friends when a gunman coming contrary to traffic on Central American Boulevard fired a series of gunshots. One of the bullets penetrated this zinc fence and struck Castellanos in the back of the head.  Castellanos struggled to the back of the house where he collapsed, dying a few minutes later.”

For members of this beleaguered family the loss of lives is often settled with the separate indictments of their own.  While Bucket’s alleged killer was subsequently freed of that murder charge, the witness, Jermaine Matura, who recanted a statement initially given to police, would later find himself in prison awaiting trial for the murder of fourteen year old Hellen Yu.  The teenager was fatally wounded during a robbery at her family store on Iguana Street Extension in August 2010.  Matura’s mother vehemently denied his involvement in the crime.

Lisa Matura

Lisa Matura, Jermaine Matura’s Mother [File: August 23^rd, 2010]

“I deh dah work now and I receive a phone call. Dah like round ten o’clock she dat dehn di ker my son fi di murda and robbery. I have people who could come and clarify that my son mih deh home di time dih babysit my bredda children deh, yoh know. I have people who could come and clarify that who sih the three person dehn run cause da through my sista, between me and my sista house dehn run through da areas, Arlington Drive dehn run.”

That incident was also prefaced by the murder of yet another relative.  A few months earlier Lisa’s sibling, Glenford Matura Jr., was expunged when an unknown gunman accosted him whilst working in the area of Euphrates Avenue and King Street.

Lisa Matura [File: March 10^th, 2010]

“Dehn killed ah fi burn we because just last night dehn dodge Bobby. Just last night dehn dodge Bobby and dehn try done Bobby life. Dehn know my bredda dah di softest one and di coolest one and he noh harm nobody so dehn try hurt he fi hurt we. Dehn can’t get to who dehn di try get to so dehn get to my bredda cause dehn could ah mi come yah last night. dehn could ah gone dah Arlington Drive last night and dehn chose when he gone dah work dis morning.”

By mid-summer a second brother, Anthony Matura would be terminated in Ladyville, bringing the total loss for Glenford Matura Sr. to two sons in 2010 alone.

Isani Cayetano

“Mr. Matura a few months ago you lost a son in a senseless killing on Euphrates Avenue, this is the second of your sons in a couple months. Can you explain to us the feelings, the emotions that are going through you at this point having lost two sons within a year?”

Glenford Matura Sr.

Glenford Matura Sr., Father of Anthony Matura [File: July 15^th, 2010]

“Ih just real painful that you know fi lost one son, weh yo tink ah two son? Just cyant understand weh di happen mein.  I nuh know weh di go on wid deh youth deh just di kill up wan anotha. People son di dead every day, yo know, just dat ih happen eena my family dis time; but everybody go through dis same grief and pain mein, yo know.”

But the liquidation of the Matura family would not end there.  By June 2011 Mark Matura was also murdered in the same yard where his cousin Tyrone was killed a few years earlier.  While the spate of violence may have subsided until recently, the family has been forced to ask the question why?

Voice of: Dorla Matura, Aunt of Mark Matura [File: June 6^th, 2011]

“Why dehn haftu just walk eena dis yard and di do murda? Why? Dehn wrong, dehn noh fi di do dat cause we noh come from black bird. We come from human. Everybody come from human, dehn come from God. Dehn shoulda stop the killing. Stop it ih noh right.”

Those words, spoken by a grieving aunt, should have been heeded by members of her family; instead, another senseless act following last week’s murder of his cousin, twenty-eight year old Kaylon Matura, has led to their latest casualty.  Sadly, the death of eleven year old Daniel Matura may have been manifested through the words of his cousin Lisa a few days earlier.

Voice of: Lisa Matura [File: May 16^th, 2012]

“Well all ah we da Matura. And so one go five more come.”

Reporting for News Five, I am Isani Cayetano.