Tuesday February 9th, 2010
- Last update:11 hours 41 min ago
Convicted for killing man in the US...
Deportee weeps to go ‘home’
Published: 18 Oct 2009
Kathy Ann Drakes is comforted by Craig Cruickshank as she tells of her ordeal.
Kathy-Ann Drakes wept profusely as she told how she was deported after being convicted of killing a man while defending her children. Drakes, a fit and attractive 45-year-old, stepped out of the airplane at Piarco Airport three days after Christmas in 2001 into a country she does not know, she said. She lived in the US for more than 30 years. She said her deportation was unfair and she yearns to return “home” to a familiar land and the people she loves. Originally from Belmont, she migrated to the United States when she was six to join her mother, a Trinidadian.
Drakes, who works with a security firm, related last Wednesday how she killed the man who was her boyfriend. She confessed to the police and the court that she committed the murder while protecting her four-year-old daughter and was charged for manslaughter in the first degree. It was 1991 and Drakes, then 28, was a nursing aide student living at East 18th Street, Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn with her two daughters, Sienna, four, and Danica, two. Four months after she met 24-year old Timothy Hawthorne, a janitor in a nearby building, he started beating her.
“He was jealous and over-protective. I made many reports to the police.
“I stopped seeing Tim and one day he burst the chain latch on the door, came into the apartment and started beating me. “I ran into the kitchen and picked up a knife and told him to get out. He refused and grabbed the knife from me. I grabbed the blade and sliced my hand. “I told Sienna to go out the door and call the police. He ran after her and said he was going to beat her. “I couldn’t let that happen and picked up the knife. He was just getting ready to strike Sienna when...“I didn’t mean for the knife to go in his back. I swear...” Drakes said, tears pouring down her face.
Manslaughter in the first degree
Drakes called 911 and when the ambulance and police came, she told them she did it, she said. Officers from the 70th Precinct in Flatbush, accustomed to her reports of abuse, testified on her behalf at her hearing and the judge offered her two to four years in jail. “I refused, preferring to take the matter to trial instead. But the jury found me guilty and I got five to 15 years.” Drakes did ten years at three maximum security prisons during which time her mother, who had been taking care of her children, died.
“This was hard for me. I was her only daughter and we were close.” Drakes’ children stayed with some nuns at a convent for a few years and then ended up with a cousin. From the beginning of her jail sentence the US immigration department told Drakes they were thinking of deporting her. “Three years later, they took me before the immigration court and ordered me deported. They said it was because I had committed a violent crime.” Drakes officially signed out of prison on November 8, 2001, but was taken to Pike County jail where she was further detained. Without warning, at 5 am on December 28, 2001, while most of the world was still celebrating Christmas, prisons officers awoke Drakes and told her: “You’re leaving.” “They put me on a plane going to Trinidad,” she recalled. “I arrived here at 4.30 in the evening and had no place, or no one, to go to.”
After staying with different relatives and friends and working at many jobs, Drakes has settled, somewhat. “I have been a security officer for the last three years and I am renting an apartment in St Joseph for $1,500 a month.” “I might have been bearing it but I have not been dealing with it.” Drakes said deportees are stigmatised in T&T and the country is still foreign to her. And the crime situation is worrying. “I am frightened for my life. Bodies are dropping everywhere in Trinidad. It doesn’t happen like this in New York.” Drakes is longing to see her three-year-old granddaughter. “I have never seen her,” she wept. “I wish somebody could help me get back home, even if for a short time.” She said her daughter has been writing US President Barack Obama, who seems sympathetic towards immigrants, for help. Craig Cruickshank, another deportee, is trying to get an immigration lawyer to help her.
A FIT AND ATTRACTIVE, The
A FIT AND ATTRACTIVE, The picture speaks a thousand words. Add the tattoo and there is all the answers, required of "GOOD CITIZEN"
This person is a beautiful
This person is a beautiful soul. Too bad you cant put yourself in her shoes, without the negative judgement. just know what you put out there will come back to you and one day you may have to be crying to the cameras for others to understand your plight.
We all have to count our blessings when we hear what others have had to live and experience. I am glad she was able to protect her children and herself. Know that God never gives you more than you can handle my dear and just keep praying and you will see the light. thank god for all mercies.
"Attractive and fit" Come on
"Attractive and fit" Come on editor I am certain OSHA prevents you from drinking while on duty....
Maybe it was the camera
Maybe it was the camera angle (LOL) - and the guy "comforting" her looks more bemused than concerned I'd say.
Getting old not easy to deal
Getting old not easy to deal with. Yvonne, I know a very good optician who can be of assistance to you.
It would appear that the
It would appear that the words displayed on your tattoo are telling quite a different story in your case Ms. Drakes. Because you refused to accept the plea deal of two to four years and take your chances in court, YOU LOST! A jury of your peers both JUDGED and CONVICTED you for killing another human being. You should have bailed out on your little Timmy long before it ever got to this violent stage. I, for one, can feel a bit safer in the knowledge that there is one less murderer roaming around the streets of my country. The US is under no obligation to be a safe haven for violent criminals like you. If you can't conduct yourself like a decent human being in this country then we don't want you living here. Period.
PS. Barrack Obama has deportation worries of his own right now. Hopefully his aunt, who has been in this country illegally for many years now, will be shown the door to an aircraft heading back to Kenya, right where she rightfully belongs.
CHALLENGING ISSUES
CHALLENGING ISSUES -
There are some challenging issues to be resolved here, but if we use our God given talents we could come up with a process better than this. Which I hope is the purpose of this article.
Drakes, a fit and attractive
Drakes, a fit and attractive 45-year-old, stepped out of the airplane at Piarco Airport three days after Christmas in 2001.............
Come on you guys, she may have been 'fit and attractive' in the year 2001!
This picture appears to be recent, probably this year, 2009!!!!!
Too bad-- she should have
Too bad-- she should have taken the two to four-- with good behavior she would have served about 12-18 months and be out by now
judges do not offer you anything - he sentenced -you appealed your lawyer or defense attorney should have advised you to accept the "offer"
Besides you were described as "fit" at age 45- yet you let a pissin tale 24 yr lil "boy " beat up on you--
too many holes in this story
Fit and attractive is
Fit and attractive is correct....She got the upper hand on the ABUSIVE MAN that was attacking her then turned his attention on her defenseless daughter. She has an attractive sole unlike some of the outwardly beautiful women in our society who's in an abusive relationsip that they can't or refuse to get out of. God Bless You.
Everybody who has commented
Everybody who has commented on this article has missed one important point. Ms. Drakes spent most of her life as an American. The deportation of convicts from countries such as Canada and the U.S.A. who have no connection to the countries of their parents, especially after paying for their crimes, is often even more cruel punishment than the jail time served. They essentially are foreigners without knowledge or cultural grounding in the lands where they are deported. Trinidad and other Caribbean nations are seeing the negative effects of foreign-raised criminals on local gangs and crime levels in general. Deportees used to gun culture and gang lifestlye have brought what they learned to our shores and our justice and social services agencies have been unprepared and unable to cope with the fallout. The bloggers who are making fun of (or are putting down) Ms. Drakes for her inability to avoid contact with her abuser display complete ignorance about domestic violence issues and dynamics. While I do not know Ms.Drakes personally her tattoo speaks succinctly to those bloggers, "Only God can judge me."
So true. Sorry I was so
So true. Sorry I was so cynical earlier. Who are we to judge? The lady wants just to get back to the only place she knows as home. May God guide her path.
Everybody who has commented
Everybody who has commented on this article has missed one important point. Ms. Drakes spent most of her life as an American. The deportation of convicts from countries such as Canada and the U.S.A. who have no connection to the countries of their parents, especially after paying for their crimes, is often even more cruel punishment than the jail time served. They essentially are foreigners without knowledge of, or cultural grounding, in the lands to which they are deported. Trinidad and other Caribbean nations are seeing the negative effects of foreign-raised criminals on local gangs and crime levels in general. Deportees used to gun culture and gang lifestlye have brought what they learned to our shores and our justice and social services agencies have been unprepared and unable to cope with the fallout. The bloggers who are making fun of (or are putting down) Ms. Drakes for her inability to avoid contact with her abuser display complete ignorance about domestic violence issues and dynamics. While I do not know Ms.Drakes personally, her tattoo speaks succinctly to those bloggers, "Only God can judge me."
SAD!Lady, don't waste your
SAD!Lady, don't waste your money. There is nothing anyone can do for you, no even Preisdent Obama. The only people who are protected legally after doing jail time, are CITIZENS. If you want to live in America today GET YOUR CITIZENSHIP.
Trinidad used to be a
Trinidad used to be a country of compassion and friendship i was happy to call my own. Now, the disgusting and hurtful comments i see posted here by so called "human beings" leads me to believe that we have changed for the worse. I cannot believe some of what i've read here. So a tattoo makes you a bad person? Her looks are more important than her story? And obviously the fact that the police testified on her behalf makes absoloutely no impression on those who seem content to disparage a woman who escaped an abusive relationship that almost cost her a child.
I'd have thought that after reading of the verdict last week of the young man convicted of killing his stepdaughter some people's eyes would be opened. But i guess bigotry has become so ingrained in some of the posters here that it would be useless to seek compassion from them. All i can say is i pity them and i wish her the best.
and god help this country.
It is hard to be objective
It is hard to be objective having just this account of events but I agree that she is not a "fit and attractive 45 year old". However, the fact is that she is a deportee and she has been back in T&T since 2001. I am not advocating domestic violence but her account does not pass the smell test. I know that not everyone has an academic aptitude but I feel that she should have spent her time in US undertaking a proper course. It looks like she was only studying brands and weave. People like her has and will continue to make it difficult for law abiding people to travel to the US. It is ironic that another deportee is helping her with an immigration lawyer......it best not be his personal lawyer.