Mesac Damas: 'I want death, right away...'

By Alicia Cruz

Senior writer

Theblackurbantimes.com

In a country all too familiar with tragedy, the heinous crime Mesac Damas has been accused of comitting has locals in Damas' native, Haiti, sickened and saddened.

{Photo of the Damas children}

“He’s a crazy man,” said Pierre Jean-Dreuban, 33, a news reporter in Haiti. Louis Wilkins, an officer with the Haitian National Police, said, “It’s a crime... this guy should burn for it.”

Damas has been charged with mudering his wife, 32 year-old Guerline Dieu and their five children, Meshach "Zack", 9, Maven 6, Marven 5, Megan, 3, and Morgan, 19 months who were found stabbed September 19 in their Naples, Florida townhome with their throats slit.

The reporter asked Damas why he killed them and he answered, “Only God knows.” The reporter then asked Damas if he wanted to be sentenced to death. Damas reply was, “I want death, right away. Because I think my family is going to be buried Saturday. I want the jury to give me death right away so I can be buried with them at the same time.”

{Photo of Guerline Damas, in her 1998 Lely High School yearbook.}

When the reporter asked Damas why he committed the murders, he replied that the "evil spirits that his wife’s mother worshipped" made him do it.

Mr. & Mrs. Damas, who had been together for 10 years, but had only been married for two year, had a history of domestic violence. Damas had been charged with misdemeanor battery in January after he assaulted Guerline Damas while she held their baby daughter in her arms.

He pled no contest to that charge and was given 12 months probation and ordered to attend parenting classes and a battery intervention program.

{The Damas' on their wedding day in 2007}

The state Department of Children and Families had visited the Damas' home three days before the chilling murders, but reported that the caseworker found "nothing amiss."
Damas was booked into the Collier County Jail five days ago where he is being held without bond and is under suicide watch.

He is not allowed any visitors except for his court appointed attorney, Michael Orlando. Damas' attorney has stated that his client plans to plead not guilty to the murder charges.

Collier Circuit Court Judge Frank Baker has ordered that Dr. Paul Kling, a Fort Myers Florida clinical psychologist, examine Damas in order to determine the competency of the defendant.
The judge granted Damas' public defender's motion for an expert to assist him in Mesac's defense and to determine his Mesac's competency.

Judeg Baker granted the motion, noting that Orlando had "stated reasonable grounds to believe the defendant may be incompetent to proceed and/or may have been insane at the time of the offense."

Depending on the medical findings, the State Attorney's Office would then hire its own forensic medical expert to examine Damas and if that exam is contradictory to the defense expert's report, another defense expert could be hired to examine Damas' competency.



{Photo of Mesac Damas from his Facebook page}