Actor and filmmaker Tyler Perry is hoping to find answers in the killing of Josiah “Jonty” Robinson, offering $100,000 to anyone with information that leads to a conviction.
Perry announced the reward Wednesday on Instagram after 24-year-old Robinson, an openly gay singer in Grenada, was found dead on a local beach last month. Perry, a writer, director and producer known for wholesome comedies featuring mostly Black casts, said his friend Yvette Noel-Schure was in tears when she told him about the killing.
“My soul ached as she shared that he was a young, gifted singer who was murdered because he was gay,” he wrote. “Yvette and I are offering a $100,000 dollar reward to anyone who brings forth information that leads to the conviction of the murderer.”
Robinson’s body was reportedly discovered in the same area of Grenadian town Morne Rouge where he had performed songs the day prior.
Speaking to The New Today, a source close to the Royal Grenada Police Force said an autopsy concluded that Robinson was strangled and thrown into the ocean. The local outlet later reported that police had questioned several people without making a breakthrough in the case.
Elsewhere in his Instagram post, Perry reflected on how Robinson’s death echoed similar tragedies from recent years.
“My mind immediately went to ... [Matthew] Shepard, and all the other victims of racist, homophobic, antisemitic, xenophobic, senseless violence,” he said, referring to a gay student at the University of Wyoming whose 1998 killing sparked calls for stronger protections against hate crimes.
In a Wednesday essay for British Vogue, friend Tenille Clarke said that Robinson, who described himself on social media as a “Youth Ambassador,” lived as “an outspoken, openly gay man” in an environment that was hostile at times.
“While Pride month is celebrated annually in metropolises such as New York … his approach to activism in the Caribbean as a member of the LBGTQ community – his voracious desire to live in his simple, beautiful truth – often became a cyclic matter of life or death,” she wrote.
Anyone with information is urged to contact the Royal Grenada Criminal Investigation Division at +1 (473) 440-3921.