The estranged boyfriend of young mother Shakeya DeRoza was this morning charged with her murder.

Jermaine Wellington Pearman, 36, of no fixed address, was brought to Magistrates’ Court amid tight security.

He was charged with the premeditated murder of Ms DeRoza, 23, on Friday. He was further charged with possessing a knife with a seven-inch blade on the Railway Trail in Sandy’s.

Pearman did not utter a word during the brief hearing before Senior Magistrate Archibald Warner, and did not have to enter a plea at this stage. He will come back to court in two weeks.

Ms DeRoza, a mother-of-two, collapsed and died in front of Rose’s Flower Shop in Middle Road, Sandy’s on Friday afternoon. Eyewitnesses say the 23-year-old ran from her apartment in Paynter Lane to the florist’s and the Steel City clothing store, bare-chested and covered in blood. She tried to get help but collapsed in a pool of blood before she could reach anyone.

Later that afternoon, Police apprehended Pearman along the Railway Trail behind Somerset Bridge Post Office. Officers spent an hour-and-a-half negotiating with him to give himself up and he was admitted to King Edward VII Memorial Hospital ICU after inflicting an injury upon himself.

Police have refused to state how Pearman harmed himself, but he appeared in court this morning with a large bandage across his throat.

See tomorrow’s edition of The Royal Gazette for the full story.