The case involving Brittany Jno-Baptiste, the woman accused of killing Jane Finch in October 2021, has been committed to the January 2023 assizes.
This brings to an end a more than year long wait to determine whether Jno-Baptiste was competent to stand trial after concerns were raised about her mental health following the 66-year-old Canadian woman’s murder.
Finch posted a distressed call for help on social media on the night of her death asking for anyone in her network to help her contact the police as her home was being broken into.
Later that morning, the police discovered Finch’s home had been broken into and her lifeless body on the ground covered in several wounds.
Until now, Jno-Baptiste had only been charged with burglary, however, that charge has been withdrawn with the more serious homicide charge now laid.
Initially, the consulting psychiatrist who evaluated Jno-Baptiste requested that the court allow her to receive six months of treatment with the expectation that she would be evaluated at the end of this period to determine her competence to answer the charge against her and face trial.
Several factors related to her treatment and evaluation resulted in delays to this final evaluation being completed and submitted to the court for review.
Finch, who lived in Antigua and Barbuda for several decades, was a resident of Piccadilly and was employed as a tour guide. She was also well known in the country’s tight-knit sailing community.
