A judge in New York on Monday jailed a 29-year-old Trinidadian woman for 21 years for killing her husband. Kelly Chadee-Forbes told the judge she killed her spouse, Michael Forbes, 50, in self-defence, but the judge didn't accept her defence.“Nothing I can do today will bring Mr Forbes back. But I can assure them that for the next 21 years, you will be paying for your actions,” the judge said.
Michael Forbes, who worked in real estate in Brooklyn, married Kelly in September 2007 after knowing each other for about a year.
Two months later on Nov. 21, 2007 police responded to a call from the couple's home where they found Forbes unresponsive but alive. He died an hour later in hospital. Autopsy results show death was from asphyxiation.
The couple lived in a luxurious home, which featured an inground swimming pool and backed up to a waterway lined with private docks. Forbes' father bought the property for US$799,000.
Kelly Chadee-Forbes, who is from Arima, pleaded for mercy, which the judge didn't grant.
“My life in Trinidad was not easy. When I was 19 years old, I was kidnapped and assaulted at gunpoint. A few years later, I became pregnant with my beautiful daughter, Kadeshja. When I was 24, I was raped. Thereafter, I moved to the United States to live with my brothers. I thought my daughter would have a better life and more opportunity,” she told the court.
She said she met Forbes while working at a beauty salon.
“He pursued me with flowers, gifts and trips. He promised me and my daughter a better life. He said he wanted us to settle down and build a family together. I believed him,” she said.
However, according to Kelly, he become a changed person from the loving man who courted her.
“He began to abuse me emotionally, mentally and physically. He told me not to go to see my brothers, because he had enemies in Brooklyn.”
She described her husband as a heavy drinker and smoker and said she tried to get him to change his lifestyle. She told the court on the day he died the 250lb Forbes attacked her and tried to strangle her and she defended herself. It was the same story she told police and the media following her arrest.
News reports in New York about the murder indicated that she had bruises on her hand, which might have indicated a struggle had taken place. She said Forbes attacked her with an electrical cord.
“I survived by the grace of God and His mercy. He grabbed me and tried to put the cord around me...And I know in my heart that I am alive today because God gave me the strength to fight Michael off.”
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