50-YEAR prison PUSH
Prosecution wants minimum five decades’ imprisonment for Shineka Gray’s killer
Published:Saturday | April 6, 2024 | 12:08 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
“WE ARE asking for life; non-eligibility before 50 years.”
That was the plainly stated sentence proposed in the St James Circuit Court on Friday by prosecutor Andrea Martin-Swaby for Gregory Roberts, the man convicted of the 2017 murder of 15-year-old schoolgirl Shineka Gray.
Roberts was found guilty of stabbing Gray 19 times on the night of January 29, 2017 On January 24 this year, a seven-member jury found him guilty after 85 minutes of deliberation.
In her closing submissions to presiding High Court Justice Bertram Morrison on Friday, while a seemingly pensive Roberts looked on, Martin-Swaby noted several aggravating factors against him, including two convictions prior to Gray’s murder.
Suspended sentence
“This is the third time that Gregory Roberts is before a court of law for sentencing. In assessing the antecedent report, on February 18, 2014, Mr Roberts was convicted for the offence of simple larceny and was given a suspended sentence … . The maximum [penalty] for simple larceny is five years, and Mr Roberts would have benefited from significant leniency in 2014, by being given a chance, 12 months suspended for two years,” Martin-Swaby outlined.
“But then on April 5, 2016, two months after the period of suspension would have expired, you are now convicted for escaping custody and you receive six months’ imprisonment at hard labour,” Martin-Swaby added.
“Can this court find that Mr Roberts can truly be rehabilitated? Because the court system gave strike one, strike two, but there is a habitual level of criminality that is being demonstrated, and not just habitual, but there is an escalation in the seriousness of the offences.”
That comment was a swipe at Roberts’ lawyer Chumu Parris, who declared a day earlier that Roberts was capable of being rehabilitated.
Parris made the statement while recommending a starting sentence of 20 to 25 years’ imprisonment.
Martin-Swaby also argued that any sentence imposed on Roberts should send a clear signal that crimes against children ought not to be condoned, while referencing previous witness testimony from Roberts’ former co-defendant Mario Morrison that the two men had sex with the underage Gray prior to her death.
Send strong message
“It is important in the context of the case at bar that a strong message be sent to society that the murder of children will not and should not be tolerated. In this case at bar, the defendant and his accomplice Mr Morrison also engaged in sexual intercourse with the now-deceased, she being a person below the age of consent; it is a part of the facts, even if we did not indict, it is a part of the facts that went before the tribunal of fact and must be in your contemplation,” Martin-Swaby told Justice Morrison.
“The latter act, engaging in sexual intercourse, occurred at the same time and during the course of events leading to her death. What must this sentence achieve in this court? The sentence imposed by this honourable court must discourage any person in this country who is tempted to think that they should replicate what transpired on January 29, 2017,” Martin-Swaby added.
The sentencing hearing has been set for further continuation on April 12, with Roberts remanded until that time. The new date was set to allow time for Justice Morrison to review the attorneys’ respective submissions ahead of issuing an appropriate sentence for Roberts.
Gray, who was a grade 10 student of the Green Pond High School in St James, was last seen alive in Montego Bay on January 29, 2017 while making her way home from the funeral of a schoolmate.
Her body was found three days later in bushes in the Irwin community.