Men to be sentenced for killing mother of five

Two men from Central Village, St Catherine, who shot dead a mother of five young children in broad daylight in July 2010 are to be sentenced on July 25 for her murder.

A Home Circuit Court jury retired on Monday for almost two hours and found Kimarley Fortella and Kestner Murray guilty of the murder of 35-year-old Coreen Johnson, also called Debbie.

The Crown, represented by Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Maxine Jackson and Crown Counsel Patrice Hickson, led evidence that about 8:45 a.m. on July 14, 2010, Johnson had just finished combing her daughter's hair when five men dressed in black entered her yard at Compound, near Central Village.

A witness who knew the men said they asked Jackson for her boyfriend. He was reported to be a don in the area but had gone missing since January 2010. The men, who were all armed with guns, began firing at Johnson. She was shot in the head and other parts of the body and died on the spot. Two of the men have since been shot and killed. One is on the run.

In their defence, the men said they were innocent of the charge. They called two witnesses who supported their alibi that they were not in the area at the time of the shooting.

Justice Marjorie Cole Smith presided at the trial, which lasted for two weeks.