‘JUSTICE SERVED’

Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Paula Llewellyn has hailed Friday's historic verdict in her office's first sentencing appeal as a victory for victims of crime.

The Court of Appeal on Friday quashed a 12-year sentence that was imposed on Westmoreland gangster Lindell Powell for two murders. Instead, it imposed life sentences for each of the two counts, with a stipulation that he serves 24 years and seven months before being eligible for parole.

Justice Bertram Morrison had sentenced Powell to 12 years on both counts and ordered that he serves 10 years before becoming parolable.

The state prosecutor, however, appealed the sentence and secured a win in its first use of the 2021 law that gives the prosecution a right to appeal sentences and acquittals.

Llewellyn, in challenging the sentence, had argued that it was “unduly lenient” and inappropriate. During the sentencing hearing, the DPP had recommended that Powell be sentenced to life with a pre-parole period of 20 to 28 years.

Following the ruling yesterday, Llewellyn repeatedly said: “Justice was served.”

“Certainly, on this side, on behalf of the prosecution – which comprises of not only prosecutors but investigators and, of course, the victims of crime – it is indeed gratifying to see it demonstrated that the fact that the pendulum of justice not only swings in the direction of the accused but also for the victims of crime,” said the island's chief prosecutor.

Llewellyn noted that the appeal judges dealt with all the issues that had arisen and were very detailed in their judgment, while giving guidance on this particular area of criminal practice.

TWO MURDERS

Powell, an ex-member of the notorious Kings Valley Gang in Westmoreland who goes by the name 'Lazarus', pleaded guilty last November in the Westmoreland Home Circuit Court to the 2017 murders of Oral McIntosh and Ida Clarke in separate incidents.

McIntosh, a licensed firearm holder, was shot in his face with a single bullet at his home in Grange Hill on January 7 and his firearm stolen.

Powell had admitted that he and his now-deceased accomplice, Logan Miller, were out robbing people when they saw McIntosh and another man in the yard.

According to him, he went to search McIntosh's van while Miller went to search the men, but Miller found a gun and shot and killed the licensed firearm holder.

He said they had not only taken his gun, but also a phone and $32,000.

Three months later, Clarke was murdered at his hut in Grange Hill. His father had stumbled upon the body, which was burnt beyond recognition in a fire on his farm.

Clarke was also chopped multiple times, but the post-mortem showed that he died from multiple gunshot wounds to his chest.

Powell had confessed to the murder, stating that he “fire five shot inna him chest”.

According to him, the man was killed because “him did a mek talk seh mi cousin Bleachers cyaan bury an den mi a go dead an him already kill one a mi fren', Jabez”.

Justice Frank Williams, in handing down the ruling yesterday, indicated that Powell should serve 20 years and seven months for McIntosh's murder and 24 years and seven months for Clarke's murder, before being eligible for parole. The sentences are to run concurrently.

The appellate court had heard arguments and submissions in May this year, but had reserved its judgment.

Meanwhile, the Court of Appeal tribunal, which also included Justice Nicole Simmons and Evan Brown, highlighted in the published judgment that the sentencing judge had erred in not imposing a life sentence for McIntosh's murder and had “imposed sentences that he had no power to impose”.

“With the incontestable factual circumstances indicating that McIntosh was killed in the course of or ancillary to a robbery, it is apparent that the learned judge erred in not imposing a life sentence in respect of this count; and in imposing a sentence of 12 years' imprisonment instead,” the judges concluded.

While describing the judge's approach to the sentence with respect to McIntosh's murder as “unorthodox”, they added that “the approach taken in the final imposition of the sentences also demonstrates an unusual lumping together of the sentences for the two offences or counts on the indictment”.

The appellate judges further deduced that “the learned judge erred in imposing a sentence of 12 years' imprisonment instead of life imprisonment (or at the very least, of 15 years' imprisonment) in respect of count one [McIntosh] and in imposing a sentence of 12 years – that is, less than the prescribed minimum of 15 years' imprisonment – for count two”.

They also observed that the sentencing judge had blundered in his belief that the Criminal Justice (Administration) (Amendment) Act, 2015 empowered him to grant a discount of up to 50 per cent to the accused as a result of his early guilty plea.

Additionally, they found that although Justice Morrison has made several references to the concept of a sentence shocking the public conscience, he ended up imposing a sentence that could be considered as such.

The Gleaner wasn't unsuccessful in getting a reaction to the ruling from attorney-at-law Dionne Meyler Barrett, who represented Powell.

During the hearing, the lawyer had asked the court not to disturb the sentence, arguing that the judge had made a wise decision considering all the circumstances.

tanesha.mundle@gleanerjm.com