Chaguanas Police: Candice was a random target

A 26-year-old Enterprise resident with a history of violence allegedly confessed on Wednesday evening to the brutal assault and robbery of former beauty queen and model, Candice Worrell.

Worrell, 29, is also the fiancée of W Connection captain and Trinidad and Tobago national football team goalkeeper Jan-Michael Williams.

Health officer and model Candice Worrell (right) with her partner and W Connection goalkeeper Jan-Michael Williams.

On 20 January 2012, she was found, battered and unconscious, outside her Jenexcon Engineering workplace in Montrose, Chaguanas with her wallet and mobile phone missing. She remained in a coma for a month before slowly regaining touch with the world around her.

Wired868 can confirm that, despite reports in other daily newspapers, Worrell became fully alert on 9 May 2012 and is speaking. And the Chaguanas Police believes it has apprehended the person responsible. The assault and robbery, according a law enforcement source, was a random and opportunistic act by a repeat offender who is known to the police.

The alleged assailant is a security guard at a casino in Tacarigua. A muscular figure whose height was given at just over six feet, the Enterprise resident had prior arrests for a string of infractions against the law that included two robbery cases with violence, housebreaking and buggery.

He is believed to have two prior convictions although that could not be confirmed at the time of publication. On 20 January, Worrell, according to a co-worker, realised that she forgot her phone and decided to return, alone, to retrieve it from the office at around 5 pm. The assailant allegedly claimed to be walking along the street when he spotted an opportunity.

“We need to be careful and not take chances in lonely environs,” the law enforcement source told Wired868.com. “Young ladies really have to mindful about that.”

The assailant, a hulking figure said to be a former sparring partner in a nearby boxing gym, supposedly told police that he followed Worrell and waited for her to come out of the office.

Candice Worrell

“He said he gave her two cuffs,” said the source. “She passed out and he took the cell phone.”

Worrell, a health and safety officer who represented Trinidad and Tobago at the 2009 Miss Tourism International in China, was discovered in a pool of blood with a shattered cheekbone and her jaw broken in two places.

Doctors at the St Clair Medical ICU (Intensive Care Unit), where she was treated before moving to St James Medical Complex, were non-committal about her chances of survival. Worrell still has meals through a tube and has no recollection of the violent incident; but she has regained consciousness and is undergoing therapy to recover mastery of her limbs.

She now spends weekends at home with her fiancé, Williams, and their 14-month-old daughter, Nevaeh, before returning to the St James Medical during the week.


PC Andre Forgenie was the officer assigned to the case under the instructions of Senior Superintendent Dulan Chan and Inspector Wayne Lawrence. At the crucial juncture, the police team expanded to include, among others, Superintendent Johnny Abraham and WPC Elcock.

Key to the arrest was the continual use of Worrell’s Blackberry Messenger, which was noticed by Williams.

Contrary to other media reports, investigating officers do not believe the assailant ever left Trinidad for Guyana. But Worrell’s phone did. The detained security guard is believed to have a close friend who is a Guyanese international.

Police officers were able to obtain help from Guyana to eventually lure the suspect into a staged meeting on the Chaguanas Main Road where he was arrested on Wednesday.

Williams, who played professionally in Hungary and Belgium and made his international senior debut at 18, is still shaken up by the brutal incident.

DirecTV W Connection captain and goalkeeper Jan-Michael Williams

“I don’t know how to feel (about the arrest),” the 28-year-old goalkeeper told Wired868. “We just have to hope that justice is done in the end.”

He was grateful for the work of the Chaguanas lawmen and repeated his call for citizens and women in particular to be careful on the streets.

“You have to thank the Chaguanas police and Forgenie in particular,” said Williams. “He did his work and he was effective. He went the extra yard and I appreciate that.”

The alleged assailant is expected to appear before a Chaguanas magistrate on Monday. Williams doubts he would attend the court session, though, and said he is not ready to see Worrell’s attacker yet.

For now, the national footballer just wants to focus on helping his fiancée to a full recovery.

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About Lasana Liburd

Lasana Liburd is the managing director and chief editor at Wired868.com and a journalist with over 20 years experience at several Trinidad and Tobago and international publications including Play the Game, World Soccer, UK Guardian and the Trinidad Express.

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4 comments

  1. “Wired868 can confirm that, despite reports in other daily newspapers, Worrell became fully alert on 9 May 2012 and is speaking”. “She now spends weekends at home with her fiancé, Williams, and their 14-month-old daughter, Nevaeh, before returning to the St James Medical during the week.” Just in case there were any doubts. Good job Jan Michael, you are the greatest!

  2. Good day readers. We sometimes feel keeping quiet is better, not all the times. Look at the results of people putting their own lives at risk to get justice on the Ian Alleyne show. The same victims are the ones who gives interviews on television and gives up tapes that shows the crime committed and the perpetrators. Maybe if we should trust in God a little more, When the angel of death comes we can’t hide. Please Lasana continue to follow up on this case and help make a difference, be the wired 868 Ian Alleyne and better.

  3. Good work Officer Forgenie! Feels great to know there is a police officer not only doing what he’s supposed to do, but doing extra to ensure criminals are caught. Keep it up!

  4. Kathryn Stollmeyer Wight

    Well done PC Forgenie. Hopefully the courts will now do their work & this brutal criminal will be punished. Buggery among his previous convictions? Was there anything put in place previously to stop him from attacking someone again? We fail on so many levels, Lasana, we have no clue about rehabilitation, do we? My heart goes out to this lovely young mother, who has lost such precious time with her child. Someone said to me “At least she is still alive”, as if that makes all the pain bearable. Good news that she can come home on weekends, I sure pray she is home soon for good.

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