A Home Circuit Court jury on Tuesday found 34-year-old former security guard Ralston Baker, of Mountain View Avenue, St. Andrew, guilty of the murder of his 49-year-old common-law wife Carol Harrison-Blair.

Baker strangled her and placed the body in a barrel at their home on Mountain View Avenue, St. Andrew.

Mr. Justice Lloyd Hibbert has put off sentencing until Friday.

The Crown, represented by Donald Bryan, Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions, and Icolyn Reid, Crown Counsel, led evidence that between August 25 and 27, 2003, Baker used a piece of electrical cord to strangle Harrison-Blair.

Hidden in barrel

Baker bound the hands and feet and threw the body face down in a barrel in the apartment where they lived at 87A Mountain View Avenue. Clothes were placed on top of the body and the barrel was covered and sealed with masking tape. The police held Baker two months later at a supermarket in Portmore, St. Catherine. He was arrested and charged by Detective Sergeant Richard Hylton.

Foul smell

The landlady, 89-year-old Lydia Dennis, testified before the 12-member jury that she smelt a foul odour coming from the deceased's apartment on August 27, 2003 and called the police. She said she last saw Harrison-Blair alive on August 25, 2003.

She said she did not see Harrison-Blair on August 26, 2003 and she asked Baker what had happened to her. Baker told her that Blair and her sister had gone to the country to look for their mother who was ill.