Long life of crime earns premium penalty

Winston Jarrett’s life of crime began at age 19 when he was first convicted for a minor infraction.

Now, after racking up 16 other convictions – the last two for murder – the 62-year-old watchman could die in prison.

Jarrett got numerous chances at rehabilitation along the way, including suspended sentences for seven of his convictions, but each time he would end up back behind bars.

His long criminal history finally caught up with him on Thursday when Chief Justice Bryan Sykes ordered that he serve 25 years in prison without the possibility of parole for killing his wife’s 18-year-old sister with whom he was having a sexual relationship.

The teen’s body was found along the roadway in Duncans, Trelawny, with her throat slashed. Jarrett pleaded guilty to the murder last month.

Ten days ago, he was also sentenced to life in prison and ordered to serve 28 years before he becomes eligible for parole for stabbing Daniel Wishart, 65, to death in 2012 in a dispute over payment for a painting job.

Jarrett absconded bail after he was arrested and charged in the 2012 case and was on the run until he confessed to Whyte’s killing last February, law enforcers disclosed.

Sykes ordered that he begin serving the 25-year prison term after completing the 28-year sentence imposed for Wishart’s killing.

Jarrett’s first conviction was on July 5, 1978, in the then St Ann Resident Magistrate’s Court for the offence of shop breaking and larceny, according to court records obtained by The Gleaner.

He was sentenced to 35 days in prison at hard labour but quickly found himself on the wrong side of the law again.

On March 7, 1979, Jarrett was again convicted in the St Ann Resident’s Magistrate Court, this time for housebreaking and larceny. He was sentenced to nine months in prison at hard labour records show.

Just over a year later, on June 4, 1980, he was convicted in the same court for shop breaking and larceny and sentenced to 12 months in prison at hard labour.

Jarrett was back in prison by April 2, 1982, after he was given a two-year sentence in the then Corporate Area Resident Magistrate’s Court for indecent assault.

His most serious conviction at the time came on March 1, 1985, when he was found guilty on two counts of carnal abuse in the Home Circuit Court, in downtown Kingston, and sentenced to 10 years in prison on each count.

Jarrett was barely out of prison 10 years later when, on August 24, 1995, he was convicted in the then Sutton Street Resident Magistrate’s Court for six fraud-related offences – three counts of forgery, uttering forged documents, obtaining money by forged documents, and conspiracy.

He was sentenced to two years in prison suspended for three years for each offence.

Two years later, on July 23, 1997, he was back before a judge in the St Ann Resident Magistrate’s Court, where he was convicted for housebreaking, larceny, and unlawful wounding that earned him another two-year prison term.

Despite his lengthy rap sheet, Jarrett was sentenced to three years in prison, suspended for three years, after he was convicted for indecent assault in the St Ann Circuit Court.

Attorney-at-law Shelly-Ann Hyman, who represented Jarrett at Thursday’s sentencing hearing in the St James Circuit Court, urged Sykes to show leniency to her client, pointing out that he was abandoned and abused as a child.

Sykes, however, cited Jarrett’s criminal history as a reason for the lengthy sentence he imposed.

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