St Ann family sentenced for murder of mentally ill man

Livern Barrett, Senior Gleaner Writer

Velma Dean, the 65-year-old woman, who along with her husband and three adult sons, stoned, then chopped a mentally-ill man in St Ann, has been sentenced to life in prison.

High Court judge Justice Carol Lawrence-Beswick, who handed down the sentence a short time ago, ordered that she must serve 30 years before being eligible for parole.

Her husband, Joseph Dean, 69, was also sentenced to life in prison and must serve 25 years before he becomes eligible for parole.

Two of their children, Dwight, 38, and Richard, 44, were sentenced to 20 years in prison and will become eligible for parole after serving 12 years.

Their sibling Jermaine Dean, 29, was sentenced to 15 years in prison and must serve ten years before he is eligible for parole.

Before passing sentence, Lawrence-Beswick slammed both Velma Dean and her husband.

"You appeared to have played a major role," she told Velma Dean, who wept throughout the sentencing hearing.

"I know he [victim] was considered a nuisance in the community, but he had a right to life," she added.

Addressing Joseph Dean, the judge told him he should have led his children in the right way.

"But you guided them down the wrong path," she chided the 69-year-old.

The five were convicted last December for killing 29-year-old Stanley McLean in Coltart Grove, St Ann on July 6, 2007.

McLean's frail, elderly father, Audley testified that he saw Velma Dean directing two of her children to stone the house where his son was hiding.

He said Dean and her children later gained entry to the house and he watched as Velma Dean stood over his son and chopped him repeatedly.

Audley McLean said a rope was tied to his son's feet and he was dragged out into the streets where Velma Dean again began to chop him.