15-year gift - Crystal Towers murderer gets reduced sentence after guilty plea
Published:Friday | December 15, 2017 | 12:00 AMCorey Robinson
Phillip Brown, the man accused of stabbing his pregnant ex-girlfriend, who was also the mother of his child, to death at her Crystal Towers apartment in St Andrew last December, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Justice Martin Gayle made the announcement after considering the facts, which outlined a tumultuous relationship that led to a graphic end to the life of Kerry-Ann Wilson, who was pregnant with another man's child at the time.
Brown will have to serve 10 years at hard labour before he is eligible for parole.
Defence attorneys Anthony Williams and Leone Hines-Smith begged for mercy, noting that the crime was one of irrational passion, but Gayle remained stoic as the plea was belaboured.
"I would say it is a case of self-control - the need to exercise self-control no matter how our emotions gallop and may lead us into violent acts. We must express self-control," said Gayle.
"In a relationship, both persons are imperfect and each one has their own choices and likes. She said it is over; that's it. Move on. I don't think you did it for the love," he said. "If you love someone, you must protect them and hope that if she will come back, she will. But she can't come back to you now."
Gayle rued that the child would be left without a mother, and, for the most part, a father, but was particularly disgusted at the revelation that Brown had had sexual intercourse with Wilson before killing her.
The court was told that the couple had recently separated and that Brown was trying to rekindle the relationship. When Wilson went to sleep, he hit her in the head with a sledgehammer.
... Sentence a Christmas present - lawyer
A watchman at the Crystal Towers apartment saw Phillip Brown trying to push an object, which was wrapped in a tarpaulin, through the rail of a bridge that is adjacent to the apartment.
He told the watchman that he was disposing of garbage and asked for his assistance, and when the watchman declined, Brown handed him his car keys and left the apartment on foot.
He was one of some 22 persons who pled guilty at the Home Circuit Court in October as part of Sentence Reduction Day. Among those who had pled guilty were persons charged with murder, wounding with intent, and sexual intercourse with persons under 16 years old.
His attorney, Anthony Williams, described the sentence as a Christmas gift.
"Based on the facts of this case, anyone charged with this offence of murder and in a similar situation runs the risk of being sentenced for more than 20 years. We were looking at 20 to 25, possibly 30 years, and he got 15 years, which I would say is a Christmas present," he said.