St Andrew siblings appeal murder sentences in deaths of mother and her children
Published:Monday | June 12, 2023 | 12:19 AMTanesha Mundle/Staff Reporter
The St Andrew woman and her brother who admitted to murdering a mother and her two young children, amid a tragic love triangle in 2018, believe their sentences of 36 years in prison before parole were too harsh and are seeking a reduction.
At the same time, the Crown has submitted that the judge erred in determining the starting point in relation to the first count (the mother’s murder) and has asked that the pre-parole period be adjusted to 29 years.
Jamelia Leslie, a 32-year-old former quality control inspector, and her brother, Javone Leslie, a 31-year-old construction worker, were sentenced in 2019 after pleading guilty to the stabbing death of Kasheif Jackson, 36, and the murder of her week-old daughter, Aranza Williams, and her 23-month-old son, Aviere Williams, both of whom died after their house was set ablaze.
The bodies of the three victims were found on July 18 inside their burnt-out home in Mavis Bank, St Andrew.
Jackson, who had received multiple stab wounds to the face, chest, abdomen, arms and neck, died from the wound to the neck and smoke inhalation. The children also died from smoke inhalation.
The siblings were given three life sentences for the murders, but were ordered to serve 36 years in prison before parole for Jackson’s murder and 21 years for the children’s. They were also sentenced to 10 years for the arson.
With the sentences set to run at the same time, the siblings are only to serve 36 years behind bars.
The Leslies, however, have appealed their sentences on the ground that they were manifestly excessive.
The matter was heard three days last week in the Court of Appeal, but the judges – Justices Frank Williams, Marcia Dunbar-Green and Nicole Foster Pusey – have reserved their ruling.
Locked childrenin burning house
According to the facts garnered from the siblings’ caution statement, at the time of the incident, Jamelia Leslie was involved in an intimate relationship with Jackson’s common-law husband, 42-year-old farmer Artnel Williams, who was the father of the two deceased children. He had also fathered a child with Jamelia Leslie.
Before the incident, Jamelia Leslie received information that Artnel Williams and Jackson were involved and that they had moved in together after the birth of their second child.
Williams had also come clean to Jamelia Leslie about the situation.
According to Jamelia Leslie, who had been supporting Williams and his son financially, she became the subject of jeers by community members as a result.
She also stated that Jackson had sent her several threats.
Consequently, on the night of the incident, she and her brother went to Jackson’s home, where both attacked and stabbed her several times.
They then removed the children from the bed and lit the mattress, locked the door and left.
However, Jamelia Leslie said it was not her intention to burn down the house and kill the children, as she thought persons on the other side of the building would have rescued them.
The woman, following the sentence, had expressed regret and remorse over her actions and had asked for forgiveness.
Her brother, in his social enquiry report, expressed similar sentiments. According to him, he experienced crying spells and sleepless nights, and has been reading his Bible to try to cope with his guilt. Javone Leslie said he was depending on God to carry him through the horrors of his actions.
Greater discounts
Attorney-at-law Sanjay Smith represented him, while Andrea Walters represented his sister.
Smith told The Gleaner that both made similar submissions in which they argued that the sentence was reasonable, given that two infants were killed in the attack, but that the siblings should have been given greater discounts, considering that they had indicated their guilt from the outset and that their sentence, as a result, should be reduced.
According to Smith, the court should consider giving his client the maximum discount of 33 1/3 for the early guilty plea or place greater weight on that as a mitigating factor.
Smith also argued that the sentencing structure used by the judge was unusual and that it departed from the norm, in that the higher sentence is not usually imposed on the first count. He submitted that the starting point should have been 18 years and not 30 years.
The Crown, in its submission, argued that the sentences for all the charges, except for Jackson’s murder, were within range and appropriate, and has asked the court to affirm the sentences.
However, it disagreed with the judges’ starting point of 30 years for Jackson’s murder and proposed that the sentence be adjusted to 29 years to life.