When someone kills their abusive partner, is it murder? The case that divided two families

Contains disturbing details.

In June 2015, Farieissia Martin, known as Fri, was convicted of murdering her ex-partner Kyle Farrell, and sentenced to life in prison, with a minimum term of 13 years.

Fri’s family says she was wrongfully convicted.

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Kyle’s family insists justice has been served.

But new evidence and an appeal led to his murder conviction being overturned 7 years later.

In the documentary “Bad Love: Why Did Fri Kill Kyle?BBC Three spoke to those closest to Fri and Kyle about their relationship, the court cases and how what happened that night changed everything for both families.

Friday, November 21, 2014

At 4:50 a.m. on 21 November 2014, Liverpool emergency services responded to a frantic 999 call.

With the choppy sound, a female voice could be heard saying, “My boyfriend, my boyfriend has been stabbed… please.”

A few minutes later, she can be heard saying: “Baby, baby, look at me, look at me, I didn’t mean to”.

Kyle, 21, was found with a stab wound to the chest at a house in Toxteth, Liverpool.

The voice on the call belonged to Fri.

Kyle’s cousin, Cody Rowson, remembers the moment she learned that he had died after being taken to the hospital.

“My mom called me hysterical and told me that Kyle was gone.

“All his friends were there. The house was absolutely packed. I’ve never seen so many young men crying.”

Lauren Rowson says her cousin Kyle was like a big brother to her.

“Growing up we did everything together. Now [la madre de Kyle] He lives without his only son.

At the time of the incident, Fri and Kyle had two children under the age of three.

Kyle’s friend Ben Boylan said, “Nobody’s perfect, but he didn’t deserve it.”

Kyle was 21 years old when he died.

When the police knocked on the door of Cheryce Shaw, Fri’s friend, she thought it was Fri who had been injured.

“My first words to the policeman were: ‘Did you do something to him?'”

‘childhood love’

Fri and Kyle met in elementary school. After years of being friends, they became a couple at the age of 16.

Lyly Maughan, Fri’s mother, remembers the day she found out they were dating.

“I don’t think she knew what love was back then, but she said she loved him. So she made me laugh a little bit.”

“He used to change like two or three times a day. He always wanted to look good for him. He was shining.”

Kyle’s family says they were shocked when they found out he had a girlfriend.

“He had a cheeky character, but Kyle was really very shyI didn’t think I’d be able to talk to a girl,” says Cody.

Posting on Facebook on July 12, 2012, Kyle announced the news that Fri was pregnant.

Shortly after having her first child, Fri became pregnant with her second.

“It was the happiest moment of his life. They were very good parents and I don’t think anyone can say they weren’t, the kids were well taken care of,” adds Cody.

In an interview with police shortly after Kyle was stabbed, Fri described what he was like as a partner.

“[Kyle] could be loving. He was the first to hug me, to kiss me. When he was good, he was good. He was a good father too.”

After having their first child, Fri and Kyle moved in together.

But Fri’s friends and family say that’s when they began to notice a change in Fri:once bubbly and warm, she became withdrawn and distant.

Farieissia Martin, known as Fri.

Strain

“He always, always, always, always called her. He texted her constantly. I figured it was because he loved her. He never left her alone,” says Lyly.

who knew them they began to notice that the relationship was becoming strainedbut at that time they attributed it to the adaptation to fatherhood.

“Having two very young children is hard on anyone, so you don’t think it’s something you should worry about,” says Fri’s friend, Cheryce.

“We would go to the house and he was always in his pajamas and you could see the changes in his personality.”

“She started to become more reserved. She wasn’t the same Farieissia, it was like she was floating,” recalls another friend.

Fri eventually told her friends about it. verbal abuse that I was getting from Kyle.

“She felt unattractive, she felt like her body was destroyed, because that was part of what I was telling her,” says Cheryce.

Fri’s friend Kylie Corner says, “You can put on makeup and still feel ugly because you’ve been conditioned. Every day you are ugly, you are fat, you are not worthy“.

Says Cheryce, “If you listen to something so much, especially when you’re very fragile, your hormones are all over the place from having kids and stuff, it’s very easy to believe that… It can break someone’s spirit. And that’s what it seemed to me.” : it was not even the trace of what it had been”.

Fri and Kyle’s family and friends say the couple’s relationship status was on and off, with Kyle often going to his mother’s house with her overnight bag after an argument.

Kyle’s aunt, Betty Rowson, told BBC Three: “We told him not to come back but he always did. I told him many times ‘she’s no good for you, get rid of her’ but he didn’t because he loved her. “.

Fri’s friends say that in the end she always forgives Kyle after their arguments, until something happened that broke her heart.

In her interview with the police, Fri explained that she had found out that Kyle had cheated on her and had a child with another.

“No matter what we argued about, it all came down to it,” says Fri.

Kyle’s cousin, Lauren, said she was heartbroken to learn that after Kyle’s death, a DNA test revealed that the other child was not Kyle’s.

“I wonder if he would still be alive if it had been known earlier.”

Lauren and Kyle grew up together.

Confession

The day Fri stabbed Kyle, she had been out Christmas shopping with a friend while he was babysitting their two children.

As the day progressed, Kyle became increasingly restless and began to press Fri to come back, sending her abusive and threatening text messages.

Fri says she came home to work things out with Kyle and then he agreed that she could go to her friend’s house for drinks. But when she started to arrive at dawn, Kyle got angry.

Explaining that she didn’t want to go home, Fri told police, “I made up excuses to stay a little longer… he was furious“.

But he finally got home.

When Fri was first questioned by the police, she lied about what happened next, claiming that an intruder had stabbed Kyle.

The police then played his 999 call and Fri asked for a break.

“First of all, I want to apologize for lying,” he said upon his return.

Fri told police that Kyle got mad because she didn’t get him cigarettes on the way home.

He said that he then grabbed her by the neck and, after pushing him, she took a knife. He warned him to stay away or he would stab him..

“I swear to God I didn’t mean to stab him,” he told police.

After calling the ambulance, Fri tried to hide the knife outside, but ended up hiding a different one than the one that stabbed Kyle.

Cody spoke to BBC3 about his cousin Kyle.

“She wasn’t protecting herself. If he was strangling her that hard, it would have hurt her a little bit. There wasn’t a single mark to show that he was doing anything like that to her,” says Cody.

Fri’s family believes that she lied about the events of that night, fearing that the children would be left alone without either of their parents.

The abuse

At first, Fri told police that Kyle was “sometimes horrible with his words,” but that he was not violent. Later, she said that he sometimes hit her.

“I think I was ashamed that he was violent with me and I allowed it… it gave me three black eyes in total,” he said.

She added that he kicked her in the belly while she was pregnant, punched holes in the wall and pinned her down. “I gave as much as I received, I did. But he always dominated me.”

Kyle’s cousin also remembers have seen scratches. “I know they were hers,” he says.

Fri made excuses for her injuries, saying the baby hit her in the eye, but eventually told a friend. She was reluctant to go to the police for fear that they would take her children away.

The appeal

Lyli photographed outside the courthouse during the appeal.

On June 9, 2015, after a two-week trial, the unanimous verdict was announced. The prosecution argued that Fri intentionally stabbed Kyle after a night out drinking at her friend’s house.

Fri was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life in prison, with a minimum of 13 years..

From prison, Fri eventually told her family about the physical and emotional abuse she had experienced.

Her family contacted Justice for Women, an organization that helps women who have fought against their abusers, and attorney Harriet Wistrich.

The lawyer representing Fri ordered that a psychiatrist and a psychologist They will evaluate it.

Multiple reports indicated that Fri was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder at the time of the stabbing, as a result of the coercive control and violence of Kyle. They also noted how her rape when she was 15 years old by a family friend of hers affected her mentally.

"Justice for Fri" reads a poster for a support group.

During the initial trial, a history of domestic violence was not explored and a mental health evaluation of Fri was not conducted. These two issues formed part of the reasons for appeal the sentence and sentence of Fri.

When Kyle’s family found out about the appeal, it was a huge shock. Lauren says the prospect of Fri’s conviction being changed to involuntary manslaughter has left the family “heartbroken.”

Fri’s appeal was heard in December 2020 and his murder conviction was overturned in May 2021.

Five months later, on the day of his retrial, mug shots came to light.

They showed injuries to Fri’s face and neck, which were never shown to the original jury.which supported Fri’s claim that Kyle tried to strangle her the night she killed him.

The new evidence allowed Fri to plead guilty to the lesser charge of involuntary manslaughter.

Seven months later, Fri she was released.

“It doesn’t matter which side you’re on, [lo que sucedió] it is a tragedy for both families,” says Cheryce.

Source: Elcomercio