By LAMECH JOHNSON

Tribune Staff Reporter

ljohnson@tribunemedia.net

DOUGLAS Pratt faces life imprisonment after being found guilty yesterday by a Supreme Court jury of murdering his girlfriend because she refused to continue a relationship with him.

The verdict was unanimous and Pratt will return to the court before Senior Justice Jon Isaacs on June 19  to face sentencing for stabbing 22-year-old Shande Cartwright to death in November 2010 at Adelaide Beach.

The victim’s mother, Mary Cartwright, who left the courtroom in tears after the verdict, told The Tribune how she felt about the outcome which took the 12-member jury more than four hours to arrive at.

“I’m happy with it even though I know it can’t bring Shande back,” she said.

When asked how she felt about the death penalty not being considered, because the prosecution had not sought it, she said she “would be happy with any punishment that he get.”

Relatives of Pratt, 27, tried to walk with him as he was being escorted by police to a holding cell in the Central Police Station to await the bus that would take him to Her Majesty’s Prison, Fox Hill.

Although the police officer said he understood their hurt, he asked that they step back because they were apparently too close to Pratt. “He don’t care!” an aunt exclaimed to another relative who was asking the officer why he was telling them to step back.

Khandy Gibson, president of the Family of All Murder victims group, said that both the Cartwright and Pratt families lost their loved ones and what was worse, “their children are motherless and fatherless now. ”Both families had waited patiently for hours on Bank Lane while the jury deliberated. And when it was made known that the jury had arrived at a verdict, they could be seen huddled together in separate spaces offering up a word of prayer.

The families had walked into the courtroom at 6:30pm followed three minutes later by the judge. When the foreman of the jury announced the verdict at 6:36pm there was only silence. There was no reaction from the accused.

Shorlty afterwards, however, one of his relative stormed out of the courtroom and was soon followed by Shande’s mother, who could not hold back her tears.

“Douglas Pratt, the jury has found you guilty of the murder of Shande Cartwright on November 22, 2010,” the judge said as he addressed Pratt.

“Do you have anything to say before sentence is passed on you?” Pratt’s lawyer, Murrio Ducille, interjected. He said he would be speaking on behalf of his client.

Prosecutor Sandradee Gardiner also informed the court that Pratt was charged with murder contrary to section 291(b) of the Penal Code, which did not seek the death penalty, but only a sentence up to life imprisonment. The judge said that in the circumstances he would not require a psychiatric report to be produced, but a probation report instead.

It was claimed that on November 22, 2010, Pratt intentionally caused the death of Cartwright, who was the country’s 86th murder victim for that year. Cartwright, who was a client service representative at the Royal Bank of Canada, was found dead at Adelaide Beach with multiple stab wounds in her body. A blanket, wine bottle and a pizza box were nearby.

The autopsy report of Dr Caryn Sands, Princess Margaret Hospital pathologist, revealed that the woman was stabbed 17 times, with some of the wounds being as deep as five inches.

Pratt, the father of Cartwright’s children, was arraigned four days later in connection with her death. He had pleaded not guilty to murder.