Widow of slain US missionary recounts his good deeds

Slain American missionary Harold Nichols was part of a team that provided a range of humanitarian assistance to between 600 and 1,000 under-served people weekly in St Mary, his widow has testified.

Teri Nichols Hinds and her late husband arrived in Jamaica in October 2002 as part of Christian Service International (CSI) missionaries before moving to Teams for Medical Missions in 2004.

Between the two groups, Nichols Hinds said she and her husband constructed small homes for indigents and the less fortunate and facilitated medical clinics and food distribution and bible studies classes.

“They would come to our gate,” she recounted in the Home Circuit Court in Kingston on Tuesday.

Nichols Hinds was giving evidence during the murder trial of Andre Thomas, the man charged with killing Harold Nichols, 53, and another American missionary, Randy Hentzel.

Their bodies were found days apart in Wentworth district St Mary in 2016.

The murders made international headlines.

Hentzel, a father of five children, had just returned to Jamaica from the United States (US) where he had gone to “sort of recharge his batteries,” Nichols Hinds said.

A second man, Dwight Henry, pleaded guilty to murder for his involvement in the killing and was sentenced to life in prison with the stipulation that he must serve 28 years before he is eligible for parole.

Nichols Hinds said the missionaries sometimes helped people with cancer get specialised treatment in Kingston.

She recounted the case of a child who “we had to bring in the house to clean up his wounds to get a better look at it”.

“In some cases they are really severe and you have to get them in a car to the hospital,” she testified.

Nichols Hinds said that her late husband worked closely with pastors in several St Mary communities to determine what kind of medical assistance was needed and whether their respective churches could facilitate a clinic of the size provided by the missionaries.

The missionary team continues to operate in Jamaica, she said during cross examination by Thomas' attorney Leroy Equiano.

- Livern Barrett

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