‘EXCESSIVE’

The man who received a life sentence for the 2016 murder of Jamaica College (JC) student Nicholas Francis is likely to get a reduction in the 31 years that he was ordered to serve before being eligible for parole.

On Monday, Court of Appeal acting President Justice Marva McDonald-Bishop suggested that trial judge Lorna Shelly-Williams had passed a sentence outside of what the law mandates.

A decision is expected to be handed down today.

Quacie Hart was sentenced in 2019 after pleading guilty to murdering the 14-year-old student by plunging a knife into the third-former’s chest during an altercation on a bus on October 26, 2016.

The killer, however, appealed his sentence, claiming that it was manifestly excessive.

On Monday, attorney-at-law Patrick Peterkin argued that Shelly-Williams had not factored in his client’s age (21) at the time of the sentence and had not properly applied sentencing principles, which resulted in an excessive sentence.

However, Justice McDonald Bishop dismissed the argument about age, noting that this would have likely been cancelled out by the age at which the victim was killed.

She, however, zoned in on the pre-parole period, questioning how the judge had arrived at that timeline.

Peterkin, in response, argued that the judge had started at 40, before settling at 31 years, but that there was no indication as to how she arrived at the 40-year range and that the range of sentences would average between 20 and 25 years.

“Starting at 40 would be more in the circumstance of a double murder; therefore, that starting point would be manifestly excessive,” the attorney said.

Justice McDonald Bishop then pointed out that based on the Criminal Justice (Administration) Act, when a person pleads guilty and the sentence is life, it should start at 30 years.

Therefore, she said, “the whole issue of starting point would not have applied to the sentence” and that the judge had applied the sentencing principles to determine the parole period instead of on the life sentence period.

But, she added, “Having given him life parole cannot exceed life; it must be a period before the sentence expires.”

Justice McDonald Bishop further observed that instead of giving Hart a 10 per cent discount for the guilty plea on the life sentence period, the trial judge applied it to the parole period.

“When she starts at 40 years and then discounts from 40, she is wrong, because she did not convert life to 30, which she would have to do to retain life. The parole cannot be higher than 30 years,” she reasoned.

According to the judge, without taking into account the mitigating and aggravating factors, Hart’s sentence, at most, would have been 24 years after the 10 per cent discount and the three years that he had spent on remand were deducted.

She said the judge’s oversight had missed both his lawyer and the prosecution, who asked for the sentence to be affirmed.

In her response, Crown Counsel Kimberley Dell-Williams said that the Crown was aware of the fictional starting point of 30 years, but that the judge went above that range because of the egregious nature of the crime.

Justice McDonald Bishop, however, reiterated that the parole period cannot be higher than the life sentence.

Government prosecutors led evidence that on the day of the incident, Francis and Hart were seated beside each other on the minibus, which was heading towards Half-Way Tree, St Andrew, when the teenager blurted out, “Talk to him nuh!”

It was later observed that Hart was holding on to Francis’ wristwatch, and the teen was trying to brush him off.

A fistfight reportedly broke out, but the two were quickly separated by one of two conductors, who gave Francis a seat at the rear of the minibus.

Prosecutors say that when the vehicle got to another bus stop, located metres from JC, Hart took Francis’ knapsack and tossed it out the door.

It was reported that another JC student, who was about to board the bus, picked up the bag.

However, prosecutors say Hart stopped him, asking, “How you so nuff? A fi yuh bag?”

When another passenger intervened and took up the bag, Hart again grabbed the knapsack and threw it to the ground.

This triggered a second fistfight.

Francis was stabbed on the hand and in the chest as the conductor tried to separate them.

tanesha.mundle@gleanerjm.com