Serial killer Fortune finally sentenced for Chauviré-murder
PHILIPSBURG – The Court in Basse-Terre (Guadeloupe) sentenced Grenada-born Kathron Fortune in October to 30 years of imprisonment for the rape and murder of Angélique Chauviré in 2006. Fortune is currently serving a life sentence in a high security prison in the Netherlands for the manslaughter and murder on Luis Sarante Diaz and Edwin Rosario Contreras on December 5, 2016 after his escape on February 15 from the Pointe Blanche prison where he was serving a 19-year sentence for the execution-style murder of Aruban Ervin Margerita on May 11, 2006, in Rice Hill Estate. If Fortune ever gets released from his Dutch prison, his sentence in France is waiting for him.
The French web site la1ere.francetvinfo.fr reported Fortune’s conviction in Guadeloupe on October 20.
Angélique Chauviré was 30 at the time of her death. She was reported missing on May 24, 2006, and last seen on May 31 in Grand Case. Her body was found on June 2, 2006, but she died probably one or two days earlier. She was brutally raped and murdered. She worked at the Sexy Fruit Boutique on Orient Bay and she was seen on the evening before her death in the company of Fortune. Police interviewed Fortune in July in prison about his connection to the victim but had to let it go at the time for lack of evidence. While the victim’s body was found on the Dutch side of the island, French authorities took over the investigation.
During the court case in Basse-Terre, gendarmes said that Fortune is the suspect in around twenty murders.
On February 15, 2016, Fortune managed to escape from imprisonment in St. Maarten during a visit to the clinic of Dr. Paul de Windt in Cay Hill. It took more than a year – until July 29, 2017 – before he was recaptured by the police in St. Kitts while he attempted to enter the country along the coast in Cranstoun Bay. He had a high-powered rifle with a scope in his possession as well as a bulletproof vest, soft drugs and an undisclosed amount of American currency.
On August 4, 2017, Fortune was back in the Pointe Blanche prison. The authorities in St. Kitts declared him an illegal alien and deported him rather than going for a lengthy extradition procedure. After Hurricane Irma hit St. Maarten, Fortune was among the prisoners that were transferred to the Netherlands for security reasons.
The Netherlands refused to extradite the now 42-year old serial murderer to Guadeloupe for the Chauviré-trial, citing his tendency to extreme violence. Fortune therefore was sentenced in absentia.
