Tyler Perry Offers $100,000 Reward for Information on Gay Man’s Murder
metroweekly.comDirector, actor and playwright Tyler Perry is offering a $100,000 reward to anyone with information leading to the conviction of the person who killed a gay man in Grenada.Perry announced the reward on his Instagram on Wednesday after receiving a call from friend and veteran publicist Yvette Noel-Schure about the death of her close friend Josiah “Jonty” Robinson, an openly gay singer-songwriter and Grenada native who performed under the name Jonty Dream.Robinson’s body was discovered on the Morne Rouge Beach, in the southwestern part of the Caribbean island, on June 18.
A police insider told the Grenadan newspaper The New Today that an autopsy — performed by an outside expert after two previous autopsies were inconclusive regarding the manner of death — revealed that Robinson had died from “manual strangulation with injuries to the cervical spine” and that his body had been thrown into the water.
The manner of death has led to speculation that Robinson was killed due to his sexual orientation, although the Royal Grenada Police Force has sought to dispel those rumors, saying in a statement that it has “gathered no evidence to that effect,” according to Loop News Caribbean.
Grenada is a socially conservative Christian-majority country that has colonial-era laws criminalizing male same-sex relationships, which are punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
