Woman sentenced to 6-1/2 years in Reggae Girl murder case

ONE OF the lawyers who represented Rushelle Foster believes she would have been acquitted of manslaughter arising from the 2019 stabbing death of 23-year-old Reggae Girl Tarania Clarke if the jury was given adequate directions by the presiding judge.

Quality analyst Foster, dressed in a black, green and mustard coloured blouse with grey jeans pants, looked on in sheer despair yesterday as she was sentenced to six years and six months by Justice Leighton Pusey in the Home Circuit Court.

The 24-year-old convict was initially tried for murder, but was found guilty of manslaughter in January.

Contemplating appeal

Following yesterday’s sentencing attorney-at law Courtney Rowe, who was not pleased with the outcome, indicated that his client is contemplating an appeal.

“We are obviously disappointed in the verdict. We take the view that the judge did not properly give his summation to the jury.

“The jury was obviously in a state of confusion hence they came back seeking an explanation. As a matter of fact, the foreman indicated in court that they did not find that Ms Foster had the intention to kill,” Rowe explained to The Gleaner.

The judge, he said, then gave them a further explanation, which he believes was inadequate, resulting in the verdict of manslaughter.

“We were seeking an acquittal based on the evidence and we believe that based on the utterance of the foreman, if a complete explanation was given to them when they came back for guidance, we would have received an acquittal,” he said.

Rowe further added that although the sole eyewitness painted his client as the instigator, it is clear based on the foreman’s posture that the jury did not accept the main witness’ account.

Also, he said, “It is clear on the Crown’s case that my client had no intention to kill, it was not premeditated and self-defence was a factor.”

The prosecution led evidence during the trial, which started on January 8, that on October 31, both women had a dispute over a cellular phone in Half Way Tree, St Andrew, when a knife was used to stab Clarke, otherwise called ‘Plum Plum’. She received one wound to her chest and another to her abdomen.

The Reggae Girlz midfielder, who was also the captain of the Waterhouse Football Club’s women’s team, died from a chest wound which punctured her lungs.

The defendant, who indicated that she and Clarke were involved in a toxic love affair, however, maintained that Clarke was accidentally stabbed. She also indicated that she had reached for the knife in self-defence and when cautioned by the police said “mi neva mean to stab har”.

Meanwhile, before handing down the sentence yesterday, Justice Pusey explained that the jury was given three choices: to find Foster not guilty of manslaughter if they accepted that she acted in self-defence; guilty of manslaughter if they believed that she was provoked; or guilty of murder if they were of the view that she acted deliberately.

Reasonable verdict

While describing the verdict as reasonable, the judge explained that manslaughter, by nature, is where death is intentional but not premeditated and could also arise in cases where there was provocation and where the defendant did not plan to cause injury or serious harm.

Murder, on the other hand, he said is a crime of specific intent or deliberate unlawful killing which is premeditated.

However, he said for the jury to have arrived at a verdict of manslaughter, “They accepted that the defendant was provoked or in some other way did not have the specific intent to kill, but it does not mean that they accepted that it was an accidental killing.”

Turning to the sentence, the judge indicated a starting point of seven years and added two years for the aggravating factor, which he listed as being the use of the knife, the two injuries and the fact that Clarke was unharmed.

Having arrived at nine years, he then deducted one year for the mitigating factors, which were the defendant’s good community report including her lack of previous conviction and her young age at the time of the incident.

Foster’s post-sentence time on remand of one year and six months was then subtracted, thereby reducing her sentence to six years and six months.

Attorney-at-law John Jacobs also represented the defendant.

tanesha.mundle@gleanerjm.com