# American Tourist Returns To Anguilla For Murder Trial



## Laela

*An American tourist is accused of killing a hotel worker in Anguilla. He says it was self-defense*
By Dakin Andone, AJ Davis and Madeleine Thompson, CNN
Updated 12:09 AM ET, Sat April 27, 2019






Gavin Hapgood

(CNN)  A vacationing Connecticut man is accused of killing a worker at a resort on the eastern Caribbean island of Anguilla, according to local authorities.

According to a statement from the Royal Anguilla Police Force, Gavin Hapgood, 44, faces a charge of manslaughter in connection to the death of 27-year-old Kenny Mitchel, a Dominican national and maintenance worker at the Malliouhana resort, in Anguilla -- a British territory in the Caribbean that's a popular tourist destination.

A representative for Hapgood, who was vacationing with his family, said the killing was in self-defense, and that Mitchel was "armed and demanding money" when he showed up to Hapgood's hotel room uninvited on April 13.

The circumstances surrounding Mitchel's death remain unclear.

It's also unclear whether Hapgood has hired a US-based attorney. Reached for comment, Thomas Astaphan, a defense attorney for Hapgood in Anguilla. declined to comment.
An autopsy revealed the cause of death was "prone restraint and positional asphyxia." There were also signs of blunt force trauma to the head, torso and abdomen, Anguilla police spokesman Randy Dick said in a statement.

"His (Hapgood's) daughters were present when the incident occurred," Dick told CNN in an email.

Police said they had no prior interactions with the Hapgood family, and that there was no available security-camera footage of the incident from the hotel.

Hapgood was subsequently arrested and charged with manslaughter, according to police. He was arraigned on April 17, and was initially denied bail, police said.

But after an appeal by his attorney, *he was granted a $75,000 bond and left the territory*, on the conditions that he return for an August 22 court date and return within three days of each subsequent hearing.

"Based on the legal advice that was given a decision was made to charge Mr. Gavin Hapgood for the offence of manslaughter," Dick said in a statement on the police department's Facebook page.

The spokeswoman for Hapgood said Mitchel had come to the room uninvited and "attacked without warning" before he was killed.

"Neither invited nor expected, the worker showed up unannounced in uniform at the hotel room, claiming he was there to fix a broken sink before carrying out his sudden, violent attack on the family," Kelcey Kintner, a spokeswoman for Hapgood, said in a statement.

"A dedicated father and husband and respected member of his community," she said, "(Hapgood) and the members of his family have been traumatized by the assault they survived and are thankful to be alive."

But Mitchel's uncle, Victor Mitchel, denied that claim to CBS News.

"Kenny was just not a person who'd give anybody problems," he said.  
________________
CNN's Paul P. Murphy, Augusta Anthony, Taylor Barnes and Chandler Thornton contributed to this report.


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## Laela

Here is a pic of the alleged violent robber (click on photo for linked story)





( There is a "rumor" among the locals about what really happened)


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## Laela

... bail posted, and he leaves island on private jet.. SMH
So sick of these  types of stories...


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## LiftedUp

Laela said:


> There is a "rumor" among the locals about what really happened


What is it?


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## Kanky

This is a weird story. What reason would there be to kill the worker if it didn’t happen the way he said? But then, who shows up to rob someone at their job, wearing their work uniform?


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## aminata

Sounds like the tourist tried to force the worker to do something he didn’t want to do and ended up killing him.


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## Laela

In reading Caribbean postings... that he caught the guy coloring his wife.. but there are others

https://onemileatatime.com/anguilla-hotel-murder/




LiftedUp said:


> What is it?


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## Theresamonet

How are they going to enforce the agreement of his return for the hearing?


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## LiftedUp

Laela said:


> In reading Caribbean postings... that he caught the guy coloring his wife.. but there are others
> 
> https://onemileatatime.com/anguilla-hotel-murder/


Thanks this us horrible


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## Charmingchick1

Theresamonet said:


> How are they going to enforce the agreement of his return for the hearing?



They’re not.  He will likely not return and this will be the last we hear of it.


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## awhyley

Charmingchick1 said:


> They’re not.  He will likely not return and this will be the last we hear of it.


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## Chicoro

Laela said:


> In reading Caribbean postings... that he caught the guy coloring his wife.. but there are others
> 
> https://onemileatatime.com/anguilla-hotel-murder/



The stories never mention the tourist's wife or of her being present on the trip. I'm not denying what you are saying. If she was on the trip, it is odd that there is no mention of her. Inferring that something seems to be amiss.


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## HappilyLiberal

Chicoro said:


> The stories never mention the tourist's wife or of her being present on the trip. I'm not denying what you are saying. If she was on the trip, it is odd that there is no mention of her. Inferring that something seems to be amiss.



One of the stories said she was videotaping the incident on her iPad.  I don't believe he was sleeping with the mans wife; otherwise, both he and the wife would be dead if he was that enraged.  Plus, their children were in the room at the time of the incident.

What was he doing in their hotel room?  And, why didn't the security people stop the altercation when they showed up.  Mitchell was still alive  when they showed up!  Unfortunately, dead men tell no tales.


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## LiftedUp

One article said that someone from the room called the front desk and asked for him to come to the room by name.

Also he was killed in front of security and staff who begged the killer to let go of him. That's murder smh


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## Kiowa

^^I doubt he'll be returning....file under #HowToGetWayWithMurder...


LiftedUp said:


> One article said that someone from the room called the front desk and asked for him to come to the room by name.
> 
> Also he was killed in front of security and staff who begged the killer to let go of him. That's murder smh



Why didn't the security and staff pull the killer off him? They stood they and let him die...aren't they equally Quilty

Supposedly the killer was an ex-military- a marine, which is why he knew how and what hold to enforce...


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## Crackers Phinn

What good is it to be black in a Black Country if a white man on vacation can kill you in a room full of your own people and be back home comfortable before your funeral?


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## intellectualuva

I'm glad I kept reading. How was he able to kill the guy in front of security!!?? I don't get why they stood there.

Why does Hapgood sound familiar to me?? Hmmm


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## intellectualuva

According to the PR firm he hired , he nor his daughters called for the guy to come to the room. There is no mention of a wife. They claim the guy showed up claiming he was maintenance to fix the sink and things went south there.

Some interesting quotes
https://darienite.com/scott-hapgood...d-to-death-of-anguillan-maintenance-man-44828




> Tensions have been high in the country, particularly on social media, leading to police and the head of the island’s government to issue statements asking people to trust law enforcement authorities to handle the case.
> 
> They also reminded the public that tourism is a big industry for Anguilla, and the nation of less than 15,000 could suffer if the public’s reaction caused vacationers to avoid the place.





> *On-the Record Statement by Kelcey Kintner, Spokeswoman for Scott Hapgood *
> 
> 
> Attacked without warning in his family’s hotel room by a maintenance worker who was armed and demanding money, Scott Hapgood acted in self-defense to protect the lives of his young daughters and himself.
> Despite false reports to the contrary, the Hapgoods never called maintenance. Neither invited nor expected, the worker showed up unannounced in uniform at the hotel room, claiming he was there to fix a broken sink before carrying out his sudden, violent attack on the family.
> A dedicated father and husband and respected member of his community, Scott and the members of his family have been traumatized by the assault they survived and are thankful to be alive.



I doubt he will face any consequences regardless if he is guilty of murder. smh.


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## Evolving78

Crackers Phinn said:


> What good is it to be black in a Black Country if a white man on vacation can kill you in a room full of your own people and be back home comfortable before your funeral?


How old were the daughters, or the daughter? I see he got a light-skinned baby there. He messed around with that man’s child. Sounds like a father that went ape crazy..


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## dancinstallion

Crackers Phinn said:


> What good is it to be black in a Black Country if a white man on vacation can kill you in a room full of your own people and be back home comfortable before your funeral?



Reminds me of Emmitt Till, how he was dragged out of the house in front of his family. I mean we all would have had to die that day because I couldn't have just stood there and watched.

What good is security if they aren't going to do anything but watch.


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## LiftedUp

Evolving78 said:


> He messed around with that man’s child. Sounds like a father that went ape crazy..


If this was the case the father would've said that not robbery.


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## intellectualuva

LiftedUp said:


> If this was the case the father would've said that not robbery.



Not necessarily.  He may not want the world to know his daughter was with a black man? It wouldn't be completely out of the realm of possibility.


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## LiftedUp

intellectualuva said:


> Not necessarily.  He may not want the world to know his daughter was with a black man? It wouldn't be completely out of the realm of possibility.


I took the term messed around to mean rape. I get it now, yes it's definitely a possibility.


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## Kanky

LiftedUp said:


> If this was the case the father would've said that not robbery.


You can’t legally call someone up to your room and kill them in retaliation for rape. Whatever happened he’d need to accuse the resort worker of being the aggressor.


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## Evolving78

LiftedUp said:


> If this was the case the father would've said that not robbery.


Did they say how old one of the daughters were? If she is in her late teens, then I stand by my theory.


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## intellectualuva

LiftedUp said:


> I took the term messed around to mean rape. I get it now, yes it's definitely a possibility.



True. I didnt think about rape...just consensual sex. Either way he may not want the world to know. 

I really want to know if they or even his daughters called the frontdesk to ask for him really happened.


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## LiftedUp

Evolving78 said:


> Did they say how old one of the daughters were? If she is in her late teens, then I stand by my theory.



I understand what you meant now I just misread it the first time.


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## LiftedUp

intellectualuva said:


> True. I didnt think about rape..*.just consensual sex.* Either way he may not want the world to know.
> 
> I really want to know if they or even his daughters called the frontdesk to ask for him really happened.



I understand now that's what the poster meant. I was confused.


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## LiftedUp

Kanky said:


> You can’t legally call someone up to your room and kill them in retaliation for rape. Whatever happened he’d need to accuse the resort worker of being the aggressor.


Neither what the killer did. The man was alive when security went up to the room and he refused to let him go. He killed him to silence him.


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## Laela

Not much, if the country is dependent on British rule still, like Anguilla...
Anguilla is not Zimbabwe



Crackers Phinn said:


> W*hat good is it to be black in a Black Country *if a white man on vacation can kill you in a room full of your own people and be back home comfortable before your funeral?


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## Laela

That's a great question! I'm not well versed on U.S.-U.K. realtions concerning  criminals... but I doubt he'll go back on that court date... this is disconcerting.. 



Theresamonet said:


> How are they going to enforce the agreement of his return for the hearing?






I'm not sure who those two ladies are that were boarding the plane with him, but I think the wife was there... I'm not so sure this was a "vacation" trip....
It'll be interesting to see this story unravel, his lies get exposed and the real truth rear its ugly head....



Chicoro said:


> The stories never mention the tourist's wife or of her being present on the trip. I'm not denying what you are saying. If she was on the trip, it is odd that there is no mention of her. Inferring that something seems to be amiss.


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## michelle81

I think he will return for court or trial only because his job will probably force him to.
I don't see a conviction happening at all. Small island with most of it's money from tourism, they won't take the chance of hurting their dollars.


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## michelle81

From this article.
https://pagesix.com/2019/04/27/accused-ubs-banker-headed-to-four-seasons-after-alleged-killing/

Not surprised at all.


Mitchel’s father alleged in a radio interview with Hughes last week that, during the incident that led to his son’s death, *“none of them tried to take this man off my son, not one, from what I understood.” He claimed that unspecified people instead feared they’d “lose their job for touching a tourist".
*
I'm sure "do not touch the tourists ever and under any circumstances" has been ingrained in them almost since birth due to the tourism dollars provided by those tourists.


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## rayne

aminata said:


> Sounds like the tourist tried to force the worker to do something he didn’t want to do and ended up killing him.



Either that or the victim saw/heard something that he wasn't supposed to. 

Since this guy will probably get away with it, I wonder if the family can sue the hotel? It happened on their property and their staff didn't intervene.


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## HappilyLiberal

michelle81 said:


> I think he will return for court or trial only because his job will probably force him to.
> I don't see a conviction happening at all. Small island with most of it's money from tourism, they won't take the chance of hurting their dollars.



I don't think so.  He will probably successfully argue that he's already been convicted in public and they will not force him to go back.


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## Black Ambrosia

Maybe the father can win a civil suit but it seems unlikely he’d have the money. I don’t see anything coming of the criminal charges. 



dancinstallion said:


> What good is security if they aren't going to do anything but watch.


The security is for them not us. Kind of like the police in a lot of neighborhoods.


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## Laela

InsideEdition coverage...


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## michelle81

HappilyLiberal said:


> I don't think so.  He will probably successfully argue that he's already been convicted in public and they will not force him to go back.



I'm thinking that his job will make him because they don't want the negative backlash. Not sure if it's a publicly traded company or not, if so then the large shareholders aren't trying to have him mess with their money by not going back to face these charges. The company probably doesn't care about the worker being dead. They just don't want their money messed with because of this.

Now if he goes back, I'm sure there will be some back room deals possibly involving money being made. Him not going back would probably mean the end of his career.


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## larry3344

Crackers Phinn said:


> What good is it to be black in a Black Country if a white man on vacation can kill you in a room full of your own people and be back home comfortable before your funeral?


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## HappilyLiberal

michelle81 said:


> I'm thinking that his job will make him because they don't want the negative backlash. Not sure if it's a publicly traded company or not, if so then the large shareholders aren't trying to have him mess with their money by not going back to face these charges. The company probably doesn't care about the worker being dead. They just don't want their money messed with because of this.
> 
> Now if he goes back, I'm sure there will be some back room deals possibly involving money being made. Him not going back would probably mean the end of his career.



They're not going to get any negative backlash.  That company has mostly white clients and this dude killed a black man and now has released pictures to show his injuries.  Dude is just dead at this point!


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## Laela

Updates:

By ERROL BARNETT CBS NEWS August 22, 2019, 7:18 PM

*American man charged with death of resort worker *
*returns to Anguilla*​
**
*Anguilla — A Connecticut man accused of killing a hotel worker in Anguilla returned to the island for a court appearance Thursday. Scott Hapgood arrived at the preliminary hearing amidst unprecedented security and attention, eager for a trial where he says his innocence will be proven.

"Every court appearance means we're one step closer to putting this nightmare behind us," he said.

The 44-year-old financial advisor was on vacation with his family at a luxury resort last April when Kenny Mitchel, an employee, came to their room. 

What happened next is unclear. But a violent struggle ended with Mitchel's death and Hapgood bloody and bruised. Hapgood was charged with manslaughter.  






Scott Hapgood with his wife and children COURTESY HAPGOOD FAMILY

A toxicology report shows that Mitchel had a high level of alcohol and mix of drugs including cocaine in his system. The victim's family denies use of cocaine. CBS News spoke to his older brother, Marshall Mitchel.

"As long as he takes on jail, justice is served. Once he takes on jail. Because I mean you take a life. You take a life! You understand?" he said.

This case has truly captivated the British Caribbean territory. But before returning to the U.S., Hapgood left a message for the people of Anguilla. 

"Someday I will be able to tell the real story in a legal setting. The sooner that day comes, the better," he said.

A lawyer for the Mitchel family would not speak with CBS News. The attorney general in Anguilla is encouraging people not to talk about the case. The next preliminary hearing is set for September 9th and expected to last five days.

© 2019 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

*


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## Laela

CBS NEWS August 23, 2019, 7:10 AM
*Witness challenges American man's account of killing Anguilla resort worker*

*
For the first time, we're hearing from someone who said he witnessed part of the deadly confrontation between a Connecticut man and a worker at a Caribbean resort. Scott Hapgood faces manslaughter charges for the death of hotel worker Kenny Mitchel.

Geshaune Clarke, a bellman at Anguilla's Malliouhana Resort, said he was the first person to find Hapgood restraining Mitchel on the floor of his hotel bathroom on April 13. His version of events is at odds Hapgood's telling of the story, and it's raising new questions about what exactly happened in Hapgood's hotel room. 

"I cannot say what happened initially. I only came there for the aftermath," Clarke told CBS News' Errol Barnett. "I saw Kenny on his back and Mr. Hapgood over Kenny."

Clarke said he saw Hapgood's forearm on Mitchel's neck and was told he came after Hapgood with a knife asking for money. Clarke said he told Hapgood to give Mitchel "proper breathing and space." At one point, according to Clarke, Mitchel tried responding.

"He said, 'Can I speak?' Then, in that same position, Mr. Hapgood came, looked down at him and say, 'You don't have a f****** thing to say,'" Clarke said.

Clarke said he and his security manager tried to intervene, but Hapgood refused for roughly 30 minutes.

"He stated that he would not move, he would not get up. He would not do anything until police is present," Clarke said.

Clarke also said Hapgood's wife came in the room after he did and recorded part of the encounter on her phone. Clarke said he knows Hapgood's wife was taking a video, not photos, because he saw her press the record button.

An autopsy report shows Mitchel died by "positional asphyxia." A toxicology report also shows he had drugs and alcohol in his system. Hapgood's family said Hapgood was bitten and stabbed, but Clarke said the knife Mitchel was allegedly carrying didn't have any blood on it. 

Outside the Anguilla courthouse following Thursday's hearing, Mitchel's brother Marshal demanded justice, saying, "As long as he takes on jail, justice is served … You take a life! You understand?"

Hapgood – who was vacationing in Anguilla with his family in April – said he's eager for a trial where he said his innocence will be proven.

"Someday I will be able to tell the real story in a legal setting. The sooner that day comes, the better," Hapgood said.

A representative for the Hapgoods said they deny most of Clarke's account – except for the delay in releasing Mitchel. Hapgood said through his representatives he was afraid the hotel staff who offered to help were part of a plan to attack him and he didn't trust them.

The next hearing in this case begins September 9.

© 2019 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.
*


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## itsallaboutattitude

Was a toxicology study done on the murderer? 

Did the police take pictures of the murderer before he posted bail? 

Those children look way younger than the two women seen leaving with him. 

I see now references to a wife taking pictures. Are we sure the woman was wifey?


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## RUBY

itsallaboutattitude said:


> Was a toxicology study done on the murderer?
> 
> Did the police take pictures of the murderer before he posted bail?
> 
> Those children look way younger than the two women seen leaving with him.
> 
> I see now references to a wife taking pictures. Are we sure the woman was wifey?



I agree with your first question. At this point when it was agreed that white dude was the one choking and restraining the victim for a lengthy period of time we need to know what was in his system.


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## Chaosbutterfly

From that account, he didn't sound traumatized or like someone acting in fear. 
It sounded like he purposefully held this man in a position where he couldn't breathe for an extended period of time, and was in full control of the situation. 

I can believe that the worker was there with not great intentions. If he had all that stuff in his system, who knows. We also don't know the history between them, because the only other person who could say is dead and wasn't even given the courtesy of final words. Maybe they met earlier and had an altercation. Or they had some kind of deal and the man was there to collect what he was owed. Who knows. I feel like the wife must be involved, because what kind of woman sees her husband choking the life from another human and doesn't try to get him to like...stop?  

But whatever caused the fight, the moment that victim was successfully subdued and help arrived, the so-called threat to his life was over. For him to keep holding him like that until he died was murder, point blank.

And yes, the other hotel workers ain't about nothing. Gonna stand there and let some white man choke out your friend and coworker, on your own soil. Today it is this man, but tomorrow, it could be any of them. The father and brother should get a large stick and beat each and every last one of them.


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## Crackers Phinn

itsallaboutattitude said:


> Was a toxicology study done on the murderer?
> 
> Did the police take pictures of the murderer before he posted bail?


If these procedures didn't happen then that's a terrible reflection on the Anguilla police who I'm assuming are all or mostly black.


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## Crackers Phinn

*The Caribbean Resort, the Investment Banker and the Dead Handyman*
What happened in Room 49 on an April afternoon?

WEST END VILLAGE, Anguilla — Sunset is as much a part of the package at the Malliouhana resort hotel as the warm face towels at check-in and morning yoga on the beach. Guests gather at plush patio sofas, tented cabanas, poolside lounges, bar stools and day beds, signature Rum Punches in hand, to watch a daily natural occurrence as if it were a blockbuster show.

But a violent death at the resort has rattled its tranquil rhythms and brought unwanted scrutiny to the resort, specifically to the door marked 49 and the bathroom within.

What happened on April 13 has riled the small island’s population and has raised uncomfortable questions about class, privilege and the deference shown to tourists, who drive the local economy. At the same time, as the narrative of events unfolds, those very tourists are left reconsidering assumptions about personal safety once taken for granted in this idyllic setting.

*‘He pulled a knife’*
The fight began in the suite’s entryway, where the men crashed into a heavy table hard enough to dent a wall and spilled bright drops of blood on the tiled floor. It then moved to a large bathroom, where Mr. Hapgood, a former Dartmouth College football player, pinned the thinner Mr. Mitchel on the floor and planted a forearm to his neck.

Mr. Hapgood, who has retained a crisis-management firm to handle inquiries from reporters, declined to be interviewed, but offered his first account of the fight and its aftermath in emails to The New York Times.

Mr. Hapgood said he was relaxing in the suite, watching the Masters Tournament on television. His daughters, 13 and 11, returned from snorkeling in the ocean. His wife was returning the snorkeling equipment, and their son, 9, had gone to the lobby for a cookie. Mr. Mitchel knocked on the door, and Mr. Hapgood answered.

“I had not seen this man before,” Mr. Hapgood wrote. “He said he was there to fix a broken sink. I did not think a sink was broken and I had not called in any requests for maintenance. Nevertheless, as he was in uniform and being rational (after all this was an upscale hotel), I said he could come in and take a look and I let him in.”

Moments later, Mr. Hapgood wrote, Mr. Mitchel “pulled a knife on me, demanding my money and my wallet.” Though Mr. Hapgood declined to discuss the details of the fight, he said it was a “hard struggle” and he was stabbed and bitten several times.

“I feared for my life, as well as the lives of my daughters,” he wrote.

As the two men struggled, the girls ran to the front desk for help, and a bellman, Geshuane Clarke, 27, hurried to the room. He said in an interview that he saw drops of blood on the floor inside and, nearby, a partially opened Leatherman tool.

Then he heard loud thuds and found the two men on the floor in the bathroom. Mr. Mitchel, who was whippet-thin, was on his back, and the larger Mr. Hapgood was straddling his torso with his left arm leaning on Mr. Mitchel’s neck and face, Mr. Clarke said.

He said Mr. Mitchel appeared to be struggling for air. Mr. Clarke recalled Mr. Hapgood saying, “‘He came at me with a knife, threatening me, asking me for money and asking my daughters for money.’”

A “security guy” arrived and told Mr. Hapgood, “We’re here to help,” Mr. Clarke said.
Then Mr. Clarke, who also has a job as a dental assistant and who has had medical training, told Mr. Hapgood that Mr. Mitchel was having trouble breathing, but the American replied, “He’s O.K. He’s breathing. I can feel him breathing.”

Mr. Hapgood was adamant that he would not let Mr. Mitchel up until the police arrived or the hotel security guards put him in handcuffs, Mr. Clarke said. About a half-hour passed this way. To try to appease him, Mr. Clarke said he looked around in vain for duct tape to bind his friend.

More employees arrived at the room, including a supervisor. Mr. Hapgood said they were wearing hotel uniforms and addressed Mr. Mitchel by name. “I was afraid they were part of the plan to continue to attack me and frankly I did not trust them,” he wrote.

Mr. Mitchel was fading, Mr. Clarke recalled. “From the way he was breathing, you could hear there was fluid in his throat,” he said. Then, he added, Mr. Mitchel managed to whisper, “Can I speak?”

“Hapgood said, ‘You don’t have a thing to say,’” adding an expletive, Mr. Clarke recalled.

Mr. Hapgood’s wife arrived, and Mr. Clarke said he saw her filming the scene with her phone. The Hapgoods, however, said she did not film the incident.

The police and paramedics arrived and took Mr. Mitchel away on a gurney. Mr. Clarke accompanied them.

“He had a very weak pulse,” Mr. Clarke said.

In the ambulance, Mr. Clarke placed an oxygen mask over Mr. Mitchel’s face. “You know how when you breathe out, it fogs up?” he said. “Nothing happened.”

He spoke to his unconscious friend. “I told Kenny, ‘I’m waiting to hear your story, because something happened,’” he said.

After the suite was empty of employees and the police, Mr. Hapgood said he discovered $200 was missing from his money clip on a bedside table.

His lawyers said the police found more than $600 in various currencies on Mr. Mitchel, and it was unclear where the money came from. Mr. Mitchel’s father, Neville, however, told the police he had given it to his son the night before.

Days later, Mr. Mitchel’s cause of death was listed as “positional asphyxia,” or suffocation in a prone restraint.

*‘This was strange and unusual’*
Since Mr. Mitchel’s death, his friends and family have said Mr. Hapgood’s account seems implausible. Mr. Mitchel was a good-natured joker, they said, and, in the words of one friend, an “ambassador for Anguilla.”

He doted on his 2-year-old daughter, they said, and enjoyed his work at Malliouhana. It was a good job on an island where the per capita income is about $29,000 a year. The idea that he would try to rob a guest — while in uniform, during his shift — did not make sense, they argued.

“Once you’ve got a job, you’re going to keep that job,” Mr. Clarke said.

But revelations suggest that perhaps Mr. Mitchel was anticipating losing his job after an incident that complicates the sunny portrait.

On March 25, less than three weeks before the fight with Mr. Hapgood, Mr. Mitchel was arrested and, the next day, charged with rape, according to police correspondence obtained by The Times. He spent a night in jail before being released on bail, and the case was pending when he died, with a court hearing scheduled for July.

A criminal conviction would have surely cost him his position at the resort and would have likely caused him, a nonnative, to lose his permit to work in Anguilla. Without the permit, he would have been forced to leave the island, and his father and daughter.

The person who accused him of rape was his former live-in girlfriend, Emily Garlick, the mother of their daughter. They had separated and Ms. Garlick had moved out, but the two remained close, she said.

Ms. Garlick declined to discuss the rape allegation in recent interviews, writing it off as a nonevent.

“It wasn’t a rape,” Ms. Garlick said. “It was a misunderstanding. We had a spat. We had a disagreement. That was it.” She said Mr. Mitchel was not overly preoccupied by the arrest.

Mr. Clarke, the resort bellman, also said Mr. Mitchel did not seem anxious about his job. “He did not show any concern, any worry,” he said.

On a recent visit to Anguilla, an island of 15,000 people where a typical breaking news story might be about a farmer’s missing goats, the death of Mr. Mitchel was still front and center in conversations. His friends spoke of it in hushed tones within the halls of the Malliouhana and, miles away in The Valley, the island’s interior town where Mr. Mitchel lived.

“I’ve never seen Kenny angry,” said the owner of a nearby store, Neville Richardson, 63. “His friendliness is what attracts you to him.”

Mr. Hapgood, a coach for his daughter’s lacrosse team who last made news for winning a platform tennis tournament with his wife, has become a reviled household name in Anguilla, which is only 35 square miles.

What was supposed to be the Hapgood family’s first vacation abroad — “We just wanted to get some sun over Spring Break,” he wrote — has become a fight to stay out of prison on foreign soil. He was placed on leave from UBS pending the outcome of the case.

Many residents assume he will not return for this month’s court date — he has said he will — and deeply resent that he was allowed to leave in the first place.

“Anguillans caught with weed have much stiffer penalties,” Mr. Hughes, the former government official, said. “This was strange and unusual.”

In recent weeks, the police have issued an Osman warning to Mr. Hapgood, a formal notice that officers cannot guarantee his safety, said one of his lawyers, Tim Prudhoe. Mr. Hapgood’s lawyers are trying to allow him to attend the hearing remotely without returning to the island, Mr. Prudhoe said.

Some wonder whether the case will deter tourists from visiting — and whether, at least in the short term, that is an altogether bad thing.

“The tourists who querulously inquire about the ‘atmosphere on the island’ give me cause to shake my head,” Vanessa Croft Thompson, a 34-year-old teacher on the island, posted on her Facebook page. “We are suddenly scared, like a dog who was never hit before.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/09/nyregion/gavin-hapgood-kenny-mitchel-anguilla.html


----------



## Kanky

Chaosbutterfly said:


> But whatever caused the fight, the moment that victim was successfully subdued and help arrived, the so-called threat to his life was over. For him to keep holding him like that until he died was murder, point blank.
> .






Crackers Phinn said:


> Mr. Hapgood was adamant that he would not let Mr. Mitchel up until the police arrived or the hotel security guards put him in handcuffs, Mr. Clarke said.
> 
> More employees arrived at the room, including a supervisor. Mr. Hapgood said they were wearing hotel uniforms and addressed Mr. Mitchel by name. “I was afraid they were part of the plan to continue to attack me and frankly I did not trust them,” he wrote.


It doesn’t seem like he was trying to kill the man, and being suspicious of the hotel staff seems reasonable under the circumstances. The hotel worker showed up in uniform to rob him, and there have been a lot of stories lately about resort workers conspiring to harm guests.


----------



## Laela

Here's a pic of the woman he allegedly raped, with their child
What's troubling to me:
1) I find it odd, no one knows where the $600 in various currencies came from. If Hapgood had been robbed of $600, it would've been known all along
2) A so-called hardcore robber, asking for permission to speak...





Crackers Phinn said:


> *The Caribbean Resort, the Investment Banker and the Dead Handyman*
> What happened in Room 49 on an April afternoon?
> 
> WEST END VILLAGE, Anguilla — Sunset is as much a part of the package at the Malliouhana resort hotel as the warm face towels at check-in and morning yoga on the beach. Guests gather at plush patio sofas, tented cabanas, poolside lounges, bar stools and day beds, signature Rum Punches in hand, to watch a daily natural occurrence as if it were a blockbuster show.
> 
> But a violent death at the resort has rattled its tranquil rhythms and brought unwanted scrutiny to the resort, specifically to the door marked 49 and the bathroom within.
> 
> What happened on April 13 has riled the small island’s population and has raised uncomfortable questions about class, privilege and the deference shown to tourists, who drive the local economy. At the same time, as the narrative of events unfolds, those very tourists are left reconsidering assumptions about personal safety once taken for granted in this idyllic setting.
> 
> *‘He pulled a knife’*
> The fight began in the suite’s entryway, where the men crashed into a heavy table hard enough to dent a wall and spilled bright drops of blood on the tiled floor. It then moved to a large bathroom, where Mr. Hapgood, a former Dartmouth College football player, pinned the thinner Mr. Mitchel on the floor and planted a forearm to his neck.
> 
> Mr. Hapgood, who has retained a crisis-management firm to handle inquiries from reporters, declined to be interviewed, but offered his first account of the fight and its aftermath in emails to The New York Times.
> 
> Mr. Hapgood said he was relaxing in the suite, watching the Masters Tournament on television. His daughters, 13 and 11, returned from snorkeling in the ocean. His wife was returning the snorkeling equipment, and their son, 9, had gone to the lobby for a cookie. Mr. Mitchel knocked on the door, and Mr. Hapgood answered.
> 
> “I had not seen this man before,” Mr. Hapgood wrote. “He said he was there to fix a broken sink. I did not think a sink was broken and I had not called in any requests for maintenance. Nevertheless, as he was in uniform and being rational (after all this was an upscale hotel), I said he could come in and take a look and I let him in.”
> 
> Moments later, Mr. Hapgood wrote, Mr. Mitchel “pulled a knife on me, demanding my money and my wallet.” Though Mr. Hapgood declined to discuss the details of the fight, he said it was a “hard struggle” and he was stabbed and bitten several times.
> 
> “I feared for my life, as well as the lives of my daughters,” he wrote.
> 
> As the two men struggled, the girls ran to the front desk for help, and a bellman, Geshuane Clarke, 27, hurried to the room. He said in an interview that he saw drops of blood on the floor inside and, nearby, a partially opened Leatherman tool.
> 
> Then he heard loud thuds and found the two men on the floor in the bathroom. Mr. Mitchel, who was whippet-thin, was on his back, and the larger Mr. Hapgood was straddling his torso with his left arm leaning on Mr. Mitchel’s neck and face, Mr. Clarke said.
> 
> He said Mr. Mitchel appeared to be struggling for air. Mr. Clarke recalled Mr. Hapgood saying, “‘He came at me with a knife, threatening me, asking me for money and asking my daughters for money.’”
> 
> A “security guy” arrived and told Mr. Hapgood, “We’re here to help,” Mr. Clarke said.
> Then Mr. Clarke, who also has a job as a dental assistant and who has had medical training, told Mr. Hapgood that Mr. Mitchel was having trouble breathing, but the American replied, “He’s O.K. He’s breathing. I can feel him breathing.”
> 
> Mr. Hapgood was adamant that he would not let Mr. Mitchel up until the police arrived or the hotel security guards put him in handcuffs, Mr. Clarke said. About a half-hour passed this way. To try to appease him, Mr. Clarke said he looked around in vain for duct tape to bind his friend.
> 
> More employees arrived at the room, including a supervisor. Mr. Hapgood said they were wearing hotel uniforms and addressed Mr. Mitchel by name. “I was afraid they were part of the plan to continue to attack me and frankly I did not trust them,” he wrote.
> 
> Mr. Mitchel was fading, Mr. Clarke recalled. “From the way he was breathing, you could hear there was fluid in his throat,” he said. Then, he added, Mr. Mitchel managed to whisper, “Can I speak?”
> 
> “Hapgood said, ‘You don’t have a thing to say,’” adding an expletive, Mr. Clarke recalled.
> 
> Mr. Hapgood’s wife arrived, and Mr. Clarke said he saw her filming the scene with her phone. The Hapgoods, however, said she did not film the incident.
> 
> The police and paramedics arrived and took Mr. Mitchel away on a gurney. Mr. Clarke accompanied them.
> 
> “He had a very weak pulse,” Mr. Clarke said.
> 
> In the ambulance, Mr. Clarke placed an oxygen mask over Mr. Mitchel’s face. “You know how when you breathe out, it fogs up?” he said. “Nothing happened.”
> 
> He spoke to his unconscious friend. “I told Kenny, ‘I’m waiting to hear your story, because something happened,’” he said.
> 
> After the suite was empty of employees and the police, Mr. Hapgood said he discovered $200 was missing from his money clip on a bedside table.
> 
> His lawyers said the police found more than $600 in various currencies on Mr. Mitchel, and it was unclear where the money came from. Mr. Mitchel’s father, Neville, however, told the police he had given it to his son the night before.
> 
> Days later, Mr. Mitchel’s cause of death was listed as “positional asphyxia,” or suffocation in a prone restraint.
> 
> *‘This was strange and unusual’*
> Since Mr. Mitchel’s death, his friends and family have said Mr. Hapgood’s account seems implausible. Mr. Mitchel was a good-natured joker, they said, and, in the words of one friend, an “ambassador for Anguilla.”
> 
> He doted on his 2-year-old daughter, they said, and enjoyed his work at Malliouhana. It was a good job on an island where the per capita income is about $29,000 a year. The idea that he would try to rob a guest — while in uniform, during his shift — did not make sense, they argued.
> 
> “Once you’ve got a job, you’re going to keep that job,” Mr. Clarke said.
> 
> But revelations suggest that perhaps Mr. Mitchel was anticipating losing his job after an incident that complicates the sunny portrait.
> 
> On March 25, less than three weeks before the fight with Mr. Hapgood, Mr. Mitchel was arrested and, the next day, charged with rape, according to police correspondence obtained by The Times. He spent a night in jail before being released on bail, and the case was pending when he died, with a court hearing scheduled for July.
> 
> A criminal conviction would have surely cost him his position at the resort and would have likely caused him, a nonnative, to lose his permit to work in Anguilla. Without the permit, he would have been forced to leave the island, and his father and daughter.
> 
> The person who accused him of rape was his former live-in girlfriend, Emily Garlick, the mother of their daughter. They had separated and Ms. Garlick had moved out, but the two remained close, she said.
> 
> Ms. Garlick declined to discuss the rape allegation in recent interviews, writing it off as a nonevent.
> 
> “It wasn’t a rape,” Ms. Garlick said. “It was a misunderstanding. We had a spat. We had a disagreement. That was it.” She said Mr. Mitchel was not overly preoccupied by the arrest.
> 
> Mr. Clarke, the resort bellman, also said Mr. Mitchel did not seem anxious about his job. “He did not show any concern, any worry,” he said.
> 
> On a recent visit to Anguilla, an island of 15,000 people where a typical breaking news story might be about a farmer’s missing goats, the death of Mr. Mitchel was still front and center in conversations. His friends spoke of it in hushed tones within the halls of the Malliouhana and, miles away in The Valley, the island’s interior town where Mr. Mitchel lived.
> 
> “I’ve never seen Kenny angry,” said the owner of a nearby store, Neville Richardson, 63. “His friendliness is what attracts you to him.”
> 
> Mr. Hapgood, a coach for his daughter’s lacrosse team who last made news for winning a platform tennis tournament with his wife, has become a reviled household name in Anguilla, which is only 35 square miles.
> 
> What was supposed to be the Hapgood family’s first vacation abroad — “We just wanted to get some sun over Spring Break,” he wrote — has become a fight to stay out of prison on foreign soil. He was placed on leave from UBS pending the outcome of the case.
> 
> Many residents assume he will not return for this month’s court date — he has said he will — and deeply resent that he was allowed to leave in the first place.
> 
> “Anguillans caught with weed have much stiffer penalties,” Mr. Hughes, the former government official, said. “This was strange and unusual.”
> 
> In recent weeks, the police have issued an Osman warning to Mr. Hapgood, a formal notice that officers cannot guarantee his safety, said one of his lawyers, Tim Prudhoe. Mr. Hapgood’s lawyers are trying to allow him to attend the hearing remotely without returning to the island, Mr. Prudhoe said.
> 
> Some wonder whether the case will deter tourists from visiting — and whether, at least in the short term, that is an altogether bad thing.
> 
> “The tourists who querulously inquire about the ‘atmosphere on the island’ give me cause to shake my head,” Vanessa Croft Thompson, a 34-year-old teacher on the island, posted on her Facebook page. “We are suddenly scared, like a dog who was never hit before.”
> https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/09/nyregion/gavin-hapgood-kenny-mitchel-anguilla.html






That account is the defendant's account....  So, basically you believe his story..



Kanky said:


> It doesn’t seem like he was trying to kill the man, and being suspicious of the hotel staff seems reasonable under the circumstances. _*The hotel worker showed up in uniform to rob him, *_and there have been a lot of stories lately about resort workers conspiring to harm guests.


----------



## Laela

ETA: I hope so, on the toxicology report... I misread your post.  Yes, that wife is suspect to me as well...




itsallaboutattitude said:


> Was a toxicology study done on the murderer?
> 
> Did the police take pictures of the murderer before he posted bail?
> 
> Those children look way younger than the two women seen leaving with him.
> 
> I see now references to a wife taking pictures. Are we sure the woman was wifey?


----------



## OhTall1

Laela said:


> The story upthread says toxicology report was done.


The question was about a toxicology report for the tourist


----------



## Kanky

Laela said:


> Here's a pic of the woman he allegedly raped, with their child
> What's troubling to me:
> 1) I find it odd, no one knows where the $600 in various currencies came from. If Hapgood had been robbed of $600, it would've been known all along
> 2) A so-called hardcore robber, asking for permission to speak...
> 
> View attachment 450741
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> That account is the defendant's account....  So, basically you believe his story..


The defendant’s story makes more sense than anything else I’ve read. And the $600 in various currencies probably came from robbing other tourists.


----------



## Laela

Thanks..I'd seen that and edited.. you guys are on it huh? lol




OhTall1 said:


> The question was about a toxicology report for the tourist


----------



## Laela

Oh, OK .. his version makes no sense to me, so I don't believe his story. I hope the trial happens..



Kanky said:


> The defendant’s story makes more sense than anything else I’ve read. And the $600 in various currencies probably came from robbing other tourists.


----------



## Crackers Phinn

Laela said:


> That account is the defendant's account....  So, basically you believe his story..



It's not the defendant's account.  

The New York Times found out the victim was charged with rape and spent the night in jail. He had a rape case pending.   His girlfriend corroborated that he was arrested for rape and said that it was a misunderstanding.  That's why I highlighted her direct quote.  

You posted her picture like it's unheard of for white women to holler rape against black men they are in relationships with.  

Also, the NYT pointed out that the daughters ran to the front desk to get help and it was because of them that the bellhop Geshuane Clarke went to the room.   




Laela said:


> Here's a pic of the woman he allegedly raped, with their child
> What's troubling to me:
> 1) I find it odd, no one knows where the $600 in various currencies came from. If Hapgood had been robbed of $600, it would've been known all along
> 2) A so-called hardcore robber, asking for permission to speak...


1.  They are saying the victim had $600 in various currencies implying that he robbed multiple other tourists from different countries before he got to Hapgood's room.

2. A "hardcore robber" with his wind getting cut off may figure  that's not the time to get buck.


----------



## Theresamonet

When this story was first posted I thought the white man was lying. Thought is must have been some illegal exchange gone awry. But lately, with all the tourist coming up missing or dead in their rooms in the Caribbean, his account is sounding a lot more credible to me.


----------



## HappilyLiberal

Crackers Phinn said:


> After the suite was empty of employees and the police, Mr. Hapgood said he discovered $200 was missing from his money clip on a bedside table.
> 
> His lawyers said the police found more than $600 in various currencies on Mr. Mitchel, and it was unclear where the money came from. Mr. Mitchel’s father, Neville, however, told the police he had given it to his son the night before.




Here's what I don't understand... where did the dad get $600 in various currencies from?  He's claiming he gave that money to his son.  Does he work at the resort too?  It sounds to me like the dad is trying to cover-up for his thieving son.  If I was that dude, I would not have gone back!


----------



## Theresamonet

At this point I pretty much believe that the resort  worker tried to rob him. I don’t know the laws in Anguilla, but it still sounds like a charge of manslaughter was appropriate, based on the accounts of both the defendant and the witness. He did not have to make a citizen’s arrest and squeeze the life out of the man for over 30 minutes, with people pleading for him to let go. He did too much.


----------



## Laela

@Bolded, the defendant's account I'm referring to is Hapgood's initial take of what actually happened in the hotel room... apparently @Kanky pulled in the rape allegation into her response about Hapgood..
The daughters ran to get help because..??? they were being robbed or the dad was choking the life out of someone and they were scared?


I'd  posted the pic, because you'd highlighted the text in blue of the rape allegation, as if Black men have never been falsely accused of rape by YT women... it either was a rape or a misunderstanding.  








Crackers Phinn said:


> *It's not the defendant's account.*
> 
> The New York Times found out the victim was charged with rape and spent the night in jail. He had a rape case pending.   His girlfriend corroborated that he was arrested for rape and said that it was a misunderstanding.  That's why I highlighted her direct quote.
> 
> You posted her picture like it's unheard of for white women to holler rape against black men they are in relationships with.
> 
> Also, the NYT pointed out that the daughters ran to the front desk to get help and it was because of them that the bellhop Geshuane Clarke went to the room.
> 
> 
> 
> 1.  They are saying the victim had $600 in various currencies implying that he robbed multiple other tourists from different countries before he got to Hapgood's room.
> 
> 2. A "hardcore robber" with his wind getting cut off may figure  that's not the time to get buck.


----------



## Laela

The witness, Mr Clarke, says he saw the wife filming the incident on her cell..yet the Hapgoods insist they didn't record the incident. Why would they not want to provide proof of the incident? I doubt the police was able to get hold of this evidence.. smh


----------



## ThirdEyeBeauty

Wow, this case just got crazier with the arrest.  Mr. Clarke does everything!  He was not kidding about once you have a job you keep it. He's the bellman, dental assistant, paramedic, and semi-security. If this case is true based on Hapgood's account, then Mr. Clarke may also be a (former) thief.


----------



## Theresamonet

Laela said:


> The witness, Mr Clarke, says he saw the wife filming the incident on her cell..yet the Hapgoods insist they didn't record the incident. Why would they not want to provide proof of the incident? I doubt the police was able to get hold of this evidence.. smh



Of course his wife filmed it; that’s what people do these days. But whether you go with Hapgood’s account of what happened, or the witness’s , it doesn’t sound like video of the incident would help Hapgoods defense, so I understand them acting like “what video?”. Either way it would show him squeezing a man to death while people beg him to let go. 

But the prosecutor should be able to seize her phone and retrieve any deleted video... Or is that just in tv and movies?


----------



## Crackers Phinn

Theresamonet said:


> At this point I pretty much believe that the resort  worker tried to rob him. I don’t know the laws in Anguilla, but it still sounds like a charge of manslaughter was appropriate, based on the accounts of both the defendant and the witness. He did not have to make a citizen’s arrest and squeeze the life out of the man for over 30 minutes, with people pleading for him to let go. He did too much.



I definitely think this was a robbery gone wrong.  The only thing that doesn't make sense to me is the hotel worker saying the knife didn't have any blood on it.  I've watched enough makeup artists on YouTube make people look like they've been beaten to discount the photos of the white man taken after he left.   That said, if the police took pics that match up and he has defensive knife wounds, this is a wrap.    

I've been on a kick lately that people who are not good at crime ought to find a new hobby.  If the court finds that this is a case of an attempted robbery gone wrong then them's the breaks for the robber trying it with the wrong one.  If this was two black people I  would say the same thing.  Don't start none, won't be none is a very good rule of thumb. 

I'm cool with whatever the courts do because it's a black country with black laws so I have to assume they will act in black folks interest.  If they put the white man in jail. Fine.  If they let the white man go. Fine.  That's them black folks business.


----------



## Theresamonet

Crackers Phinn said:


> I definitely think this was a robbery gone wrong.  The only thing that doesn't make sense to me is the hotel worker saying the knife didn't have any blood on it.  I've watched enough makeup artists on YouTube make people look like they've been beaten to discount the photos of the white man taken after he left.   That said, if the police took pics that match up and he has defensive knife wounds, this is a wrap.
> 
> I've been on a kick lately that people who are not good at crime ought to find a new hobby.  If the court finds that this is a case of an attempted robbery gone wrong then them's the breaks for the robber trying it with the wrong one.  If this was two black people I  would say the same thing.  Don't start none, won't be none is a very good rule of thumb.
> 
> I'm cool with whatever the courts do because it's a black country with black laws so I have to assume they will act in black folks interest.  If they put the white man in jail. Fine.  If they let the white man go. Fine.  That's them black folks business.



I completely agree with all of this. I’m fine with however this goes. I’m very interested seeing in what happens though.


----------



## Dposh167

I believe it was a robbery. Those drugs in his system probably thought he could pull it off.


----------



## Kanky

The most shocking thing about this story is the rich white man coming back to stand trial in a country where they admit they cannot guarantee his safety.


----------



## kblc06

Kanky said:


> The most shocking thing about this story is the rich white man coming back to stand trial in a country where they admit they cannot guarantee his safety.



Hubris, wealthy white male hubris


----------



## Laela

ITA... in addition, I think it's his attorney' strategy to keep him from returning to the island.... the same "mild" people who stood by and watch him violently kill someone are now violent people who are out to get him..yeah, riiiight. 



kblc06 said:


> Hubris, wealthy white male hubris


----------



## Crackers Phinn

*GoFundMe PULLS UBS banker Scott Hapgood's $250K legal fund amid manslaughter trial in Anguilla after supporters of black hotel handyman who died in financier's room claim it's 'the epitome of white privilege'*

*Scott Hapgood, 44, must sign a 'declaration under threat of perjury' that the $250,000 donations won't be used to pay for his legal defense in Anguilla*
*Supporters of dead man Kenny Mitchel, 27,  expressed outrage on social media after finding out about the crowdfunding page to rage $400,000*
*One said it's 'The epitome of white privilege' and another claimed 'This is how you buy your way out of murdering someone'*
*The Connecticut man's community made pledges ranging from $100 to $5,000*
*But it is against the rules of GoFundMe as he has been charged with manslaughter for the death of Malliouhana hotel worker Mitchel in April  *
*He claims Mitchel came to his room with a knife while his daughters were inside*
*They fought and Mitchel was alive when Hapgood left the room but he later died from asphyxiation *
*Hapgood is currently awaiting trial and the friend who created the GoFundMe claimed his family was fighting to 'regain the life they worked so hard to build'*
By Leah Simpson For Dailymail.com and Jennifer Smith For Dailymail.com

Published: 01:56 EDT, 29 September 2019  | Updated: 02:50 EDT, 29 September 2019

The Connecticut banker charged with manslaughter for allegedly killing a hotel worker in Anguilla has had a GoFundMe page that raised $250,000 for him as he faces trial, has been pulled by the crowdfunding site for flouting rules.

GoFundMe held the money raised by Scott Hapgood's supportive community and vowed not to release it unless he signed an agreement not to use the money for his legal defense, as the platform states it cannot be used in cases where someone has been accused of a violent crime.

It was after fuming supporters of dead Anguilla man Kenny Mitchel, 27, found out about the donations from people that saw anywhere from $100 to $5,000 being handed over to pay for Hapgood's legal fight.

'The epitome of white privilege,' one disappointed person wrote on a Facebook page pushing for justice for Mitchel who was killed in April after he knocked on Hapgood's Malliouhana hotel room door to fix the sink but brandished a knife, according to the 44-year-old father who was on vacation.
The New York Post details of GoFundMe's contact with her client on Thursday.

He must sign a 'declaration under threat of perjury' that the donations won't be used to pay for his defense after the page was created by friend Catherine Prichard, who asked his Darien neighbors for $400,000, saying: 'Please help Scott and his family as they fight to regain the life they worked so hard to build.'

The trial was pushed back earlier this month after a brief court hearing on the Caribbean island.

Hagood is eager for his trial to begin but has been told it could take months.

Hapgood, a UBS banker who was on vacation with his family, says he fought Mitchel to protect his two daughters who had not long returned to their room when Mitchel appeared at the door.

Hapgood said he would do what he did again in order to protect his children at a press conference before he returned to Anguilla earlier this week.

The case has outraged local residents of Anguilla who say he should never have been granted bail. The banker returned to his home after being granted $74,000 bond in April.

He has vowed to attend every court appearance on the Caribbean island and is flying with a private security detail after being warned by local police that the situation could become dangerous for him if he stays on the island too long.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...al-fund-amid-manslaughter-trial-Anguilla.html


----------



## 1QTPie

Wow.  Just wow.


----------



## intellectualuva

Wow..


----------



## Kanky

The NYTimes is reporting that the hotel worker had lethal amounts of cocaine in his system and could’ve died from that.


----------



## Theresamonet

Kanky said:


> The NYTimes is reporting that the hotel worker had lethal amounts of cocaine in his system and could’ve died from that.



Could've, but he didn’t. The coroner reported that his cause of death was positional asphyxiation. If the white man had let him out the bear hug, he would have maybe OD in a holding cell, and he wouldn’t be going through this. But many addicts consume lethal amounts of their drug of choice and live to do it again the next day.


----------



## Kanky

Theresamonet said:


> Could've, but he didn’t. The coroner reported that his cause of death was positional asphyxiation. If the white man had let him out the bear hug, he would have maybe OD in a holding cell, and he wouldn’t be going through this. But many addicts consume lethal amounts of their drug of choice and live to do it again the next day.




The NYTimes is reporting that the coroner revised his report and listed the cause of death as cocaine.


----------



## Kanky

*Did a Banker Kill a Handyman at a Caribbean Resort? Or Was It Cocaine?*

A new autopsy suggests a hotel handyman who died during a fight with a tourist from Connecticut had taken a lethal amount of cocaine.

Image_





The Malliouhana resort in Anguilla, where a handyman died in April during a fight with a tourist. CreditDennis M. Rivera Pichardo for The New York Times_

_Share on Facebook_
_Post on Twitter_
_Mail_
_


By Michael Wilson
_

_Oct. 1, 2019Updated 7:47 p.m. ET_
_A banker from Connecticut visiting the Caribbean island of Anguilla with his family in April answered a knock at the door of his resort suite and found an employee who said he had come to fix a sink. 

The two men began fighting almost immediately. The tourist, a former football player named Gavin Scott Hapgood, overpowered the smaller employee, Kenny Mitchel, and pinned him until the police arrived. Mr. Mitchel, 27, died soon after, and when a coroner ruled he had been asphyxiated during the struggle, Mr. Hapgood, 44, was charged with manslaughter. 

*Now that same coroner’s revised autopsy report based on recently released toxicology tests has upended the narrative of what happened at the Malliouhana resort that day, finding that Mr. Mitchel died not from injuries related to the fight, but from a lethal dose of cocaine. *

The new report suggests he had so much cocaine in his bloodstream that he was essentially a dying man when he entered Mr. Hapgood’s suite that day. 
_

_

The Caribbean Resort, the Investment Banker and the Dead Handyman
Aug. 9, 2019
Image




Kenny Mitchel, left, with his former girlfriend Emily Garlick.Credit
“Acute cocaine toxicity could have been a potentially independent cause of death in the known circumstances,” reads the report by Dr. Stephen King, who oversaw the autopsy. The revised report, dated Sept. 3, was obtained by The New York Times.

A separate analysis of the new autopsy, conducted at the request of Mr. Hapgood’s lawyers by the Chief Medical Examiner for the state of Maryland, Dr. David R. Fowler, led to a similar finding. Also obtained by The Times, the report described cocaine levels in Mr. Mitchel’s bloodstream “twice that commonly accepted to have a fatal outcome,” causing his lungs to fill with blood and suffocating him. 
_

_The revised report also seems to bolster the defense claim that Mr. Mitchel was behaving erratically and aggressively, common side effects for that level of drug use. Mr. Hapgood has said Mr. Mitchel threatened him with a knife and demanded money. Mr. Mitchel’s blood also had alcohol levels at twice the legal limit. 

It remains unclear how the new toxicology findings will affect the prosecution. The attorney general in Anguilla, Dwight Horsford, has declined to discuss the case, which has moved slowly since Mr. Hapgood’s arrest following the fight on April 13. The defendant was allowed to post a bond of $74,000 and return to his home in Darien, Conn., sparking an outcry on the island that a tourist was receiving preferential treatment. 

Mr. Hapgood returned to Anguilla several times last month for preliminary hearings in court that were closed to the public. Those hearings have been adjourned until Nov. 11. Mr. Hapgood, who was traveling with his wife and three children, has been placed on leave by his employer, UBS Investment Bank, pending the outcome of the case. 

A GoFundMe page seeking donations to the family raised more than $250,000 before the site pulled it down last week, the Darien Times reported. It is against the site’s policy to allow raising money for a defendant accused of a violent crime. 
_

_After months of silence, Mr. Hapgood recently spoke out about the case, repeating his claim of self-defense both outside the Anguilla courthouse and at a news conference in Manhattan. 

“We’re hanging on by a thread, to be honest with you,” he told reporters. “It was a terrifying incident.” 

The revised autopsy suggests that Mr. Mitchel may likely have died regardless of where he was that afternoon. 

Different people react to cocaine differently depending on a variety of factors. But it is a widely accepted finding that 900 nanograms of cocaine per milliliter in the bloodstream is potentially lethal. 
_

_Mr. Mitchel’s level was more than twice that amount — 1,900 nanograms per milliliter, according to toxicology reports released in September. Another substance, benzoylecgonine, which is produced when cocaine is broken down, was found in high quantities, — 1,700 nanograms per milliliter — suggesting he had repeatedly used cocaine in the days before his death. 

Image




Gavin Scott Hapgood, left, with his lawyer, Juliya Arbisman, at a news conference in Manhattan in August.CreditCalla Kessler/The New York Times
The Chief Medical Examiner in New York City, Dr. Barbara Sampson, cautioned in an interview on Tuesday that there were no absolute rules in cases involving cocaine. 

“There is no ‘safe level’ of cocaine, and there is no uniformly lethal number, either,” she said. “The interpretation of cocaine levels is very difficult. It has to be analyzed in context with the whole case.”
_

_She said the widely used textbook in this area, “Disposition of Toxic Drugs and Chemical in Man,” offered a range of 900 to 2,100 nanograms of cocaine as potentially lethal. 

Dr. Fowler found in his analysis that the cocaine likely caused the asphyxiation that contributed to Mr. Mitchel’s death. In similar cases involving cocaine, the walls of the lung’s air sacs break down and fill with blood, “preventing air exchange,” Dr. Fowler wrote. 

A person experiencing this degree of shortness of breath would survive only if treated immediately with a ventilator in a hospital’s intensive-care unit, Dr. Fowler wrote. 

Mr. Mitchel’s blood-alcohol level was 0.18, according to the report.

In the days and weeks after his death, Mr. Mitchel’s family and supporters spoke out in his support, describing him as a hard worker and happy father. 
_

_Yet, that profile was complicated by an arrest a few weeks before his death, when Mr. Mitchel was charged with rape. The woman who made the complaint in that case was his former girlfriend, Emily Garlick, with whom he shared a young daughter. 

She later pulled back the accusation in an interview, saying the incident was an argument and no crime took place. On Tuesday, she continued to defend Mr. Mitchel, saying she did not know him to use cocaine.

“He hid that from me if he did,” Ms. Garlick said on Tuesday. “He went out with his friends the night before. They said he was fine, he was good.” 

She said she doubted the new autopsy findings. “How can they just change it like that?” she said.
_


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## Theresamonet

Kanky said:


> The NYTimes is reporting that the coroner revised his report and listed the cause of death as cocaine.



Interesting. That’s very suspicious.


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## Crackers Phinn

Now see, that second autopsy is a little too convenient.  It's  B.S.  that dude mighta died that day from cocaine anyway.  A big ole grain fed white man choking you out will do that quicker.    The coroners name is Stephen King? What is with the new picture with dudes forehead looking like it was busted open and stitched back together?

This is officially a circus.

Alladat said, I still think it was a robbery that didn't go as planned.   However, Hapgood tryna stack all those not guilty chips in his favor.  I don't blame him, I would too, ain't nobody tryna volunteer for jail,  but I still see what you did there.


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## Laela

It'll all come out in the wash...


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## Ganjababy

The 600 in various currencies sounds like tips if one works in the tourist industry.


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## Laela

That's very possible....



Ganjababy said:


> The 600 in various currencies sounds like tips if one works in the tourist industry.


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## Crackers Phinn

*Connecticut banker accused of killing hotel worker during Caribbean vacation sues five-star resort owner over fatal encounter*

By Jessica Schladebeck
New York Daily News |
Jan 16, 2020 | 11:12 AM

An American tourist charged with killing a hotel worker he claims attacked his family during a Caribbean vacation last April is suing the owners of the five-star resort where the fatal incident occurred.

Scott Hapgood in a lawsuit filed Monday in a California court accused Auberge Resorts of negligence in its hiring and supervision of 27-year-old worker Kenny Mitchel, who served as a handyman at the Maillouhana Resort in Anguilla.

“Auberge Resorts failed to ensure the safety and protection of its hotel guests, the Hapgood family,” said Juliya Arbisman, a lawyer for the Connecticut banker.

“As a result, Auberge Resorts should be held responsible for the harm that the Hapgood family has suffered."

Hapgood was enjoying a vacation with his wife and children at the upscale getaway when Mitchel arrived at the door of their room in his employee uniform on April 13. He said he was there to fix a broken sink, but the encounter almost immediately turned physical.

Hapgood, a former athlete from Darien, easily overpowered Mitchel and held him down until authorities arrived. The hotel employee died soon after.

The USB banker has repeatedly said he acted in self-defense and that Mitchel had tried to rob him. He was charged with manslaughter in the incident’s aftermath.

The coroner initially ruled that the hotel worker died of positional asphyxia and received blunt force injuries to his torso and other areas. The autopsy was reportedly later revised by the same coroner after toxicology results showed Mitchel had a lethal dose of cocaine and alcohol in his system, Hapgood’s attorney said.

According to the lawsuit, Mitchel was charged with rape less than three weeks before the deadly brawl in the hotel room. As a Dominican national, the pending charges against him should have barred him from his resort job, but “Auberge continued to allow him to work for the hotel and have access to its guests, including children.”

What’s more, safety measures at the hotel are “completely inadequate” and do not include security personnel nor camera surveillance, according to the court filing cited by Patch.


The Hapgood family, all of whom had to seek out counseling, are seeking an undisclosed amount of damages in the case.

“Auberge promises a ‘dream vacation.’ The resorts it owns and operates — more than 20 in total, including the five-star Malliohana resort on the tiny Caribbean island of Angquilla — are high-end. President Obama, Beyoncé and Jay Z have all been Auberge guests,” the suit reads.

“‘The Auberge Way’ in hospitality means ‘unforgettable experiences in storied destinations.’ But to plaintiff Scott Hapgood, the 45-year-old husband of Kallie and father of Ryan, Hope and Winn, the ‘Auberge Way’ means something different. It means getting attacked at knife point by a highly intoxicated 27-year-old hotel employee, being viciously stabbed, clawed bitten and beaten fearing for his life and his family.”


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## intellectualuva




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## Laela

Classic deflection...


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## Crackers Phinn

Two years since deadly Caribbean hotel altercation, Scott Hapgood’s case stalls​By Lisa Backus April 11, 2021 Updated: April 13, 2021 7:20 a.m.


DARIEN — A case that drew international attention, outrage on a Caribbean island and even piqued the interest of former President Donald Trump, has gone silent.

Tuesday will mark two years since Darien investment banker Scott Hapgood was involved in a deadly altercation with a hotel worker while vacationing with his family in Anguilla.

The 27-year-old hotel worker, Kenny Mitchel, was killed during the incident. Hapgood was charged with manslaughter and has been considered a “fugitive from justice” since skipping a court hearing in November 2019.

The criminal and civil lawsuits associated with the incident have stalled during the COVID-19 pandemic.

A spokesman for the Hapgoods declined to comment and said the family did not want to be interviewed. An attorney representing the mother of Mitchel’s child also declined to comment.

Claiming he fears for his life, Hapgood has refused to return to the British island. After the missed court appearance, Anguillian authorities threatened to have Hapgood arrested and extradited back to the Caribbean, but no action has been taken.

At the direction of a higher judge, a magistrate is conducting an inquiry into whether the prosecution should continue without Hapgood present for court hearings.

Hapgood’s appeal of the higher judge’s ruling was denied.

What happens next will depend on the magistrate’s investigation, and it remains unknown when that will be completed.

Hapgood, 46, contends that Mitchel unexpectedly showed up at his family’s room at the Malliouhana Resort on April 13, 2019, to fix a sink that wasn't reported broken. Hapgood had been at the resort vacationing with his family, including his three children, two of whom were in the room when Mitchel arrived.

Mitchel was an employee of the resort and was wearing a hotel uniform when he showed up at the room, according to Hapgood's attorneys.

In a lawsuit filed against the resort, Hapgood contends Mitchel pulled out a knife, demanded money and attacked him. The lawsuit claims Hapgood acted in self-defense when he fought with Mitchel. Hapgood restrained Mitchel for nearly an hour as resort officials failed to immediately call police or an ambulance, the lawsuit claimed.

Mitchel’s estate has filed its own lawsuit against Hapgood, claiming the former UBS banker kept his arm on the younger man's neck for more than 40 minutes. The findings were supported by an autopsy, which said Mitchel died of prone restraint, positional asphyxia and blunt-force trauma to the head, neck and torso.

However, a toxicology report later found Mitchel had a lethal amount of cocaine in his system. That finding is mentioned in Hapgood’s lawsuit against the resort.

No official police reports on the struggle have been released.

Hapgood has denied nearly all of the allegations contained in the lawsuit filed by Mitchel’s estate and wants the civil action dismissed and a variety of damages and his legal fees paid by the younger man’s family.

“The attacker was restrained by Scott for significantly less than an hour, and he died after arriving at the hospital,” said Jamie Diaferia, a spokesman for the Hapgood family.

The incident sparked international outrage and has been the focal point of speculation on what happened in Hapgood's hotel room leading up to Mitchel’s death.

Anguillians have protested Hapgood’s release from jail and return to the U.S., while the Darien man said he and his family have received death threats.

The case caught Trump’s attention when Hapgood’s wife, Kallie, appeared on Fox & Friends in October 2019.

“Will be looking into the Scott Hapgood case, and the Island of Anguilla,” Trump tweeted that day. “Something looks and sounds very wrong. I know Anguilla will want to see this case be properly and justly resolved!”


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## Rastafarai

This racist murderer will walk. I just know it.


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## Kanky

I knew that rich white man was not going to stand trial. He will vacation somewhere else and act like this never happened.


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## Crackers Phinn

I gotta go back to my original post in this thread.


Crackers Phinn said:


> What good is it to be black in a Black Country if a white man on vacation can kill you in a room full of your own people and be back home comfortable before your funeral?



Anguilla let him go back home.  I get that Covid has delayed everything but if Anguilla's powers that be don't even bother to go through the motions to request extraditon then all of this is whatever.


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