American Tourist Returns To Anguilla For Murder Trial

ThirdEyeBeauty

Well-Known Member
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

Well-Known Member
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

Either A Blessing Or A Lesson.
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

Well-Known Member
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.
 

Laela

Sidestepping the "lynch mob"
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. :rolleyes:

Hubris, wealthy white male hubris :look:
 

Crackers Phinn

Either A Blessing Or A Lesson.
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
 

Kanky

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

Theresamonet

Well-Known Member
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

Well-Known Member
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

Well-Known Member
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


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.
 

Crackers Phinn

Either A Blessing Or A Lesson.
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.
 

Crackers Phinn

Either A Blessing Or A Lesson.
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.”
 

Crackers Phinn

Either A Blessing Or A Lesson.

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!”
 

Crackers Phinn

Either A Blessing Or A Lesson.
I gotta go back to my original post in this thread.
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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