SERIAL KILLER STAYS PUT - Judges uphold 66-year term for eight-murder killing spree 

Convicted serial killer Kemar Thompson, whose bloody 2014 crime spree claimed eight lives in three separate incidents across St Catherine, will remain behind bars for at least 66 years and seven months before parole considerations.

This follows the dismissal by the Court of Appeal of his challenge to the sentence imposed by the Home Circuit Court, which he argued was manifestly excessive.

In a ruling affirming the life sentences, the appellate court concluded that although the sentencing judge made several procedural and methodological errors, the punishment was neither excessive nor disproportionate given the “exceptional gravity” of the crimes.

“The sentencing judge properly and correctly exercised her discretion in imposing the consecutive sentences, given that the murders took place on separate occasions.

“In all the circumstances, the aggregate minimum pre-parole period of 66 years and seven months does not offend the ‘totality principle’ and is commensurate with the gravity of the appellant’s criminal conduct across separate and devastating episodes of extreme violence,” the judges stated in the written judgment published last Friday.

Thompson, who was 23 at the time of the murders, killed eight men in less than three months between August and October 2014 in what the court described as escalating and calculated acts of violence.

The first killing occurred on August 4, 2014, when Carlton ‘Selly Selly’ Blake was gunned down in Bog Walk, St Catherine. Evidence presented to the court revealed that a witness heard the words “now or never” moments before Thompson pulled a firearm and shot Blake in broad daylight.

Just over two months later, Thompson and armed accomplices carried out a deadly ambush along Highway 2000, targeting a vehicle transporting approximately $1.5 million intended for China Harbour Engineering Company construction workers. Three men were murdered during the robbery, while an innocent truck driver, who happened upon the scene, was also killed.

Ten days after the highway massacre, Thompson launched another attack in Pineapple Lane, Bog Walk, where three men were fatally shot in what he later described as reprisal killings.

The St Catherine higgler was handed eight life sentences in July 30, 2019 after pleading guilty to the murders along with robbery and gun charges.

The Court of Appeal noted that Thompson showed little remorse for the killings, expressing regret for only one victim. According to a social enquiry report, he claimed that many of the deceased were connected to a community don and had posed threats to him or his relatives.

In a judgment delivered by Justices Marcia Dunbar Green, Nicole Foster-Pusey and Georgiana Fraser, the court found that the sentencing judge, failed to properly apply the structured sentencing approach established in previous appellate decisions.

The judges also noted that insufficient explanation was provided regarding sentencing ranges, starting points, and the balancing of aggravating and mitigating factors. Additionally, the statutory guilty plea discounts had been improperly applied to all the murders, although Parliament had expressly excluded deductions after the first murder in a series.

The appellate judges also found that pre-trial custody credits had been incorrectly calculated across overlapping indictments.

Despite these findings, the court conducted its own assessment and concluded that the sentences were not manifestly excessive, although one of the three minimum parole periods imposed,17 years and seven months, 40 years, and 26 years and seven months, was “notably lenient”.

The judges stressed the extraordinary seriousness of the offences, highlighting the use of firearms, execution-style killings, multiple victims, public attacks, and Thompson’s apparent lack of remorse.

The court also upheld the consecutive sentencing structure which had been applied, finding that the murders occurred on separate occasions and reflected escalating criminality warranting distinct punishment. Both the 17 year and the 26 year sentences had been orderd to run concurrent but consecutive to the 40 year sentence.e

Thompson’s attorney, Oswest Senior-Smith, however, had argued that the sentencing judge had “materially departed” from established sentencing principles by failing to adequately identify sentencing ranges, explain starting points, or properly weigh mitigating factors such as Thompson’s youth, lack of previous convictions, guilty pleas, cooperation with investigators, and prospects for rehabilitation.

Senior-Smith also argued that Thompson spared the State significant judicial resources by pleading guilty to eight murders and two additional offences, avoiding multiple murder trials and sparing witnesses and relatives further trauma.

Senior-Smith further contended that the judge improperly calculated the discounts for the guilty pleas and erred in ordering consecutive sentences, resulting in what he described as a manifestly excessive aggregate sentence.

However, Crown counsel Kimberly Dell-Williams, who appeared with Tasha Powell, maintained that despite flaws in the sentencing methodology, the punishment imposed was appropriate given the scale and brutality of the offences.

She acknowledged that while the sentencing judge did not fully adhere to the structured sentencing methodology required by law, the murders qualified as capital murders under the Offences Against the Person Act because of Thompson’s prior murder conviction arising from the first killing.

Consequently, she argued that the law permits life sentences with substantial minimum parole periods for multiple murders of this nature.

tanesha.mundle@gleanerjm.com