BY PAUL HENRY henryp@jamaicaobserver.com Co-ordinator - Crime/Court Desk Friday, April 04, 2014
A muffled cry came from the back of the number two courtroom on the passing of the sentences, and persisted outside. There, the women wept bitterly and two had to be helped to walk.
The news soon reached the throng of people — mostly women — gathered on Barry Street outside the Supreme Court in downtown Kingston and soon the crowd was chanting in unison, "Free World Boss! Free World Boss!" as police struggled clear the thoroughfare.
Workmen stood atop the old National Commercial Bank building, which is being converted into an extension of the High Court, to get a glimpse of the excitement as office workers peered from opened windows, sticking out their torsos.
The uproar was triggered by Justice Lennox Campbell's sentencing of Vybz Kartel; 35-year-old Shawn 'Shawn Storm' Campbell; Kahira Jones, 27; and Andre St John, 27, to life imprisonment.
The courtroom was packed with police officers and court workers, to the point where there was only standing room.
Thirty-eight-year-old Vybz Kartel (real name Adidja Palmer) was ordered to serve 35 years at hard labour before becoming eligible for parole, Campbell and Jones are to each serve 25 years before parole, and St John is to serve 30 years behind bars before he's eligible for parole.
In handing down the sentences, Justice Campbell outlined that he took into consideration the fact that the murder of Clive 'Lizard' Williams on August 16, 2011 was planned and premeditated; that Williams' body had been concealed; the mental stress Williams had been put through before his murder; and the attempt to destroy evidence.
Still, Campbell said that most of these wouldn't apply to St John and that he was mindful that the men had varying roles in the killing at a house owned by Vybz Kartel in Havendale, St Andrew over two missing guns. more
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