Dantay Brooks, the 18-year-old son of Dancehall artist Mavado, and his co-accused Andre Hinds were sentenced to life imprisonment for murder at the Court of First Instance today.
Brooks must serve at least 22 years before being eligible for parole. He was also sentenced to 15 years for illegal possession of a firearm and 15 years for arson.
Co-accused Andre Hinds will not be entitled to parole until he is at least 17 years old. Hinds was also sentenced to 15 years for illegal possession of a firearm and 15 years for arson.
The sentences, which were handed down by Minister Leighton Pusey, will be carried out simultaneously.
Brooks’ lawyer, Peter Champagnie, promised to appeal. “We have fertile ground to make an appeal. We respect the judge’s decision, but we will be acting according to people’s right to challenge the decision, ”he said. DancehallMag.
Brooks and Hinds were found guilty earlier this year for the three charges stemming from a 2018 home invasion in Cassava Piece, Santo André, which left Lorenzo Thomas dead.
At the time of his arrest for this homicide charge, Brooks was released on bail for another matter and had already served 18 months for a previous offense.
Asked why Brooks had a longer sentence than his co-accused, Champagne explained: “The court found that Brooks’s role was more instrumental than that of Hinds. The record revealed that Brooks was on bail for another matter at the time the crime was committed, and that was not the case for Hinds. “
During the trial, prosecutors presented evidence that Brooks and Hinds were among the five men who broke into Thomas’s home and shot him. Thomas’s father, who came out unscathed, provided crucial testimony, including the gang’s attempts to cut off Thomas’s head and the use of gasoline to set the body and house on fire.
The murder was said to have occurred just days after Mavado was shot by a group of men from the Mandioca community. He was not hurt, but according to Loop, the singer reported the incident to the Constant Spring Police.
Later, Constant Spring police issued a power of attorney to Mavado, after breaking into the artist’s Norbrook residence in search of him for questioning about an increase in violence in the community. Loop News reported that he had already left for the United States the night before the attack on the residence.
After the verdict in January, Mavado shouted “corruption” and claimed that his teenage son and co-accused Andre Hinds did not have a fair trial. He addressed the testimony of Thomas’s father saying: “This man also went to the stand and said that these same policemen who carried out the arrest of my son and my family in my house are working for me and he feared his life”.
“The same man who claims to fear his life, still gave more than 14 pages of statements? The inconsistencies in this man’s statement only shed light on corruption, ”added Mavado.