STOP TEK DEM FROM JAMAICA ! – WOMAN KILLED!

03/01/2011 07:54 pm

NEW PORT RICHEY – Orane Ferguson told jurors today that he agreed to marry Lenora Michelle Neal in 2005 only because she told him she would help him establish permanent residency in the United States.

“She said she could help me stay in the country and she would marry me,” Ferguson said from the stand. “I told her that if she did that I guess she would expect a relationship and I couldn’t do that because I don’t find her attractive. I don’t like big ladies.”

Ferguson had traveled from his home in Jamaica to attend his brother’s funeral. He met Neal at the funeral and later crossed paths with her in Tampa. He said he eventually agreed to the marriage because he didn’t want to return to Jamaica.

Ferguson, 31, is on trial this week in his wife’s brutal slaying and in the stabbing of Neal’s son, Gabriel, now 18. He is charged with first-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder and could face up to life in prison.

The 12-member jury is expected to deliberate the case Wednesday.

Defense attorneys acknowledge their client stabbed Neal 50 times and her son three times during a fight. But they contend Ferguson didn’t premeditate the killing and is therefore not guilty of first-degree murder even if he might be guilty of some lesser offense.

They said Ferguson acted in frustration when he killed Neal, the result of her constant threats to withdraw her help from his attempt to obtain residency. She also routinely berated him, the defense attorneys said.

Under the initial terms of their marriage arrangement, Ferguson said he was only required to be at home when Gabriel returned from school and be there with him while he did his homework.

But those demands quickly increased, Ferguson said.

He said Neal acted in public as if they had a real relationship and started demanding sex, including telling him to impregnate her. She threatened not to help him gain residency if he refused.

On July 20, 2008, the family left their rented home in the Ballantrae subdivision for church in Lakeland. Neal and Ferguson argued before they left the house because Ferguson didn’t want to go to church, according to trial testimony.

He went anyway but sulked for most of the day. When they returned home in the afternoon, Ferguson and Neal got into a second argument, this time over food Ferguson was making for himself.

The disagreement escalated and led to Gabriel attempting to restrain his stepfather. Ferguson and Gabriel eventually grabbed knives from the kitchen. Prosecutors said Ferguson chased Neal into the bathroom, opened the locked door with a key and forced his way in.

He then used two knives to mercilessly attack Neal, prosecutors said. She died face down on the bathroom floor.

Gabriel was stabbed in the chest, mouth and hand as he tried to defend his mother.

A Pasco County sheriff’s deputy testified today that Ferguson was calm when authorities arrived at the house. When deputies asked him where his wife was, he motioned toward the bathroom.

“Don’t worry about her,” deputies quoted Ferguson as saying. “She’s dead.”