Woman puts life on hold to take care of her sister's kids

"It still feels like yesterday. I couldn't feel the Earth beneath my feet when I received a call that my little sister was murdered by her estranged husband in front of their kids," Bilasco Pratt said.

Recounting the morning of April 16, 1993, Pratt said she was in Jamaica when she received the heart-wrenching news that changed her life forever. She said that she had plans of migrating to the United States but after her sister's murder, she stayed back in Jamaica in order to be a mother to two children who were suddenly parentless.

According to Pratt, her sister, Paulett, was constantly on the receiving end of verbal and physical abuse from her husband in Jamaica. Pratt said that when Paulett got the chance to travel to the United States to restart her life, she didn't hesitate.

"When Paulett was pregnant, he had another girl pregnant and when she spoke about it he kicked her down. I was glad when she got away and moved to the States with her kids, but he found her and asked to see the kids. Paulett was very soft-hearted so it wasn't a surprise when she allowed him in the children's life," she said.

According to Pratt, her former brother-in-law wanted more than just a chance in the children's life but he also wanted her sister.

"He began to stalk her at work and home. He went and bought a gun and waited for her inside the back of her car. When she saw him she began to run cause she knew him did a go beat her. He shot her in her leg and she went to hide under a utility van and begged him not to kill her," she said before bursting out into tears.

Pratt said Paulett's husband promised not to kill her and even assisted her as she crawled from underneath the vehicle. However, seconds later he pumped all the bullets from his Tech-9 sub-machine gun into her body in the presence of their toddlers.

At the trial, prosecutor Ken Padowitz said Peter Samuels, a former Jamaican police officer, thinking Paulett had his money and was with another man, purchased the Tech-9 semi-automatic pistol two days before the murder.

Pratt, who had no children of her own at the time, knew she had to step in and be a mother to her niece and nephew, so she flew to the United States to be with them.

CHILDREN TAKEN TO JAMAICA

"Persons were asking me if I was crazy to take on such a task because I wasn't at a stable place in my life. I was just getting over a relationship and things were sort of down the drain. But even if the three of us had to settle under a tree that's what we were going to do. They were just three and four years old, and I didn't want them to be placed in foster homes, so I took them back with me to Jamaica," she said.

As their father served his life sentence in prison, Pratt took care of his children ensuring that they completed high school. She added that she dedicated her entire life to them and didn't even pursue an intimate relationship during that course.

"I stayed with them for 13 years and when it was time for me to leave to the States, my nephew began crying and I knew I had to stay with them a bit longer, so I took care of them until they were old enough and pass the worst and got stable jobs. They used to say I was very strict but I was really just protective because I didn't want anything bad to happen to them, " she said.