March 25, 2002 – Two brothers from Tortola are back at home facing murder charges after being arrested on St. Thomas.
Housing Authority Police officers apprehended Kaunda Cornwall, 22, and Nester Cornwall, 21, on a warrant from the Safe Streets Task Force. "They were detained on illegal entry to the territory and were deported to Tortola, where they were wanted in connection with a homicide that occurred several months ago," Housing Police Capt. Gaston Tuckett said.
Tuckett said he received a tip about the fugitives and pursued the lead for several days, ultimately locating the pair outside the One Stop convenience store near Addelita Cancryn Junior High School last Wednesday. They were turned over to BVI police and formally charged two days later. On Friday, "the brothers were jointly charged with the capital offense of murder," BVI police spokeswoman Tamara Archibald-Gill said on Monday.
According to the Tortola police, the charges stem from the fatal stabbing in January of Elmarlon Hermon, 33, after an argument. Hermon had been "playing dice at a place called The Ghetto in Road Town," Archibald-Gill said. During the argument, she said, Hermon reportedly stabbed a man with a broken bottle, and then "Hermon was then chased inside a house by a group of people where a violent struggle took place."
Shortly after the killing, Tortola police arrested two other Cornwall brothers, one of them the man who had been injured by the broken bottle. "But we had to let them go because they were the wrong guys," Archibald-Gill said. By then, Kaunda and Nester reportedly had fled the BVI.
Archibald-Gill said Claudette Cornwall, the brothers' mother, also has been charged with murder in connection with the stabbing. Police said she was on the scene of the assault and joined the crowd that followed Hermon into the house where he was killed.
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