Sascha Wil­son

Dex­ter Alexan­der claimed even though he nev­er di­vorced his first wife he got mar­ried a sec­ond time be­cause as a serv­ing mem­ber of a Bap­tist church he felt pres­sured in­to get­ting mar­ried. Alexan­der, a con­struc­tion work­er, said he was in a com­mon-law re­la­tion­ship with his sec­ond wife, who served in the same church, an arrange­ment which was frowned up­on by the pas­tor and the con­gre­ga­tion.

Alexan­der, through his lawyer Car­ol Foder­ing­ham, told this to San Fer­nan­do judge An­tho­ny Car­mona af­ter chang­ing his plead to guilty. On the last oc­ca­sion he had plead­ed not guilty and State at­tor­ney Jen­nifer Mar­tin opened the case. No ev­i­dence was lead by wit­ness­es.

Yes­ter­day, the judge di­rect­ed the nine-mem­ber ju­ry to re­turn a guilty ver­dict on the charge of bigamy. Alexan­der, then 27, mar­ried Rhon­da Forbes, then 23, on Oc­to­ber 26, 1996 at Latchoos Road, Pe­nal. Forbes sought an an­nul­ment eight months lat­er, af­ter she found out he was mar­ried pre­vi­ous­ly and nev­er di­vorced. He got mar­ried to De­bra Mitchell on Au­gust 23, 1989.

Foder­ing­ham, in her mit­i­ga­tion plea yes­ter­day, said Alexan­der nev­er told Forbes or the pas­tor about his pre­vi­ous mar­riage be­cause he thought he would have lost her. The judge quipped: "Is it like the in­ter­na­tion­al singer, Be­y­once says, 'if you like it put a ring on it.'"

The at­tor­ney said there were whis­pers among the con­gre­ga­tion that they were liv­ing to­geth­er and the pas­tor was not hap­py. She said Alexan­der felt emo­tion­al­ly and spir­i­tu­al­ly pres­sured in­to get­ting mar­ried. She said he sep­a­rat­ed from his first wife two months af­ter they were mar­ried. She said he was mis­lead in­to think­ing that since sev­en years had passed it was okay to mar­ry again.

Foder­ing­ham asked that he be placed on a bond, say­ing he did not get mar­ried for fi­nan­cial aid but for love. The judge, how­ev­er, said emo­tion­al trau­ma could be more dam­ag­ing that fi­nan­cial hurt. Foder­ing­ham asked the judge to con­sid­er that Alexan­der spent eight days in prison, had no oth­er crim­i­nal mat­ters, men­tored youths, at­tend­ed church, had an eight-year-old daugh­ter and was in­volved in a com­mon-law re­la­tion­ship.

State at­tor­ney Jen­nifer Mar­tin sug­gest­ed com­pen­sa­tion, say­ing Forbes suf­fered grief and shock. The mat­ter was ad­journed to May 29.