KINGSTON, Jamaica–Justice Leighton Pusey will, on October 20, hand down his ruling in the murder trial of Rushane Barnett. In June this year, he pleaded guilty to murdering his cousin, Kimesha Wright, and her four children in Clarendon, south of here.
But before the judge delivers the ruling, the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), Paula Llewellyn, KC, has withdrawn the death penalty notice for Barnett, urging the judge, however, to impose a sentence of 60 years and nine months in jail, which the Crown is proposing.
Addressing the Supreme Court in the trial’s sentencing phase on Thursday, the DPP said that since Barnett had pleaded guilty at the first opportunity, the Crown was obliged to withdraw the death penalty as a sentencing option, which it had given notice of on June 28.
But the attorney representing Barnett in her plea in mitigation said. At the same time, the defense could not deny the aggravating factors outlined by the Crown; the fact that her client had turned himself in willingly and signaled his intent to plead guilty even before an attorney was assigned to him was reason enough for the Court to give him the discount the Crown argued the Court should not provide.
Attorney Tamika Harris said if the Court ignored that Barnett had pleaded guilty early, it would send the wrong message to others who might be minded to go that route.
She urged the Court to consider that Barnett had said that if he were given a chance, he would apologize to his aunt and tell her that he heard voices in his head and could not resist doing what he did.
She said an appropriate starting point for Barnett would be 50 years with a 10 percent discount taking it down to 45 years.
“I believe 45 years before parole would be an appropriate sentence,” she said.
However, the DPP urged the Court to view the case as the “worst example” and that the prosecution could not find case law in Jamaica where one individual killed five people at the exact location.
She said Justice Pusey would be setting precedence given that no such case has ever been prosecuted in Jamaica.
“On any platform, and in any language, this would be the worst example of an offense of murder that we have seen in this jurisdiction, and therefore we would be inviting the Court… to view this case as the worst example.
“The Crown would like to commend to Your Lordship that the most suitable starting point for each count in this indictment would be life imprisonment with an eligibility for parole not before serving 55 years,” Llewellyn said.
On June 21, the bodies of Wright, her daughters Kimanda Smith, 15; Sharalee Smith, 12; Rafaella Smith, five; and Wright’s only son, 23-month-old Kishawn Henry Jr, inside their house in Cocoa Piece, Clarendon.
Barnett had fled the central Jamaica parish and sought refuge in Trelawny, where the police eventually apprehended him.
Llewellyn told the Court that the account the accused gave to the police showed “a clear and calculated intention to kill Wright and inflict wounds to her in front of her children.”
She outlined the eight aggravating factors which the prosecution had contemplated, such as the age of the children, the fact that they were related to the accused, the wounds, and the fact that Barnett was a person in authority and an occasional caregiver for the children.
According to the DPP, the report of a forensic psychiatrist who had assessed Barnett said it was clear he was not laboring under a psychiatric illness at the time he acted.
According to the consultant psychiatrist, Barnett admitted to killing the five, claiming voices in his head told him to do so but has no prior reported history of psychopathology. The report said Barnett claimed he had been hearing voices since he was 18 years old. According to the forensic psychiatrist, Barnett was not influenced by any abnormality of the mind at the time of the murders.
“He understands the nature of the offense but describes the incident as a result of Obeah reaching him and forcing him to act. He has no major mental illness but displays antisocial personality traits. He currently has no suicidal or homicidal ideas,” the report said.
According to the report, based on a psychopathic checklist, Barnett displayed superficial charm, deceitfulness, lack of remorse, empathy, adult antisocial behavior, and the possible presence of impulsivity, and they did not accept responsibility.
“He was aware and master of his thoughts. He knew exactly what he was doing, but clearly, he had a sense of entitlement… there was clear intent,” the DPP stated, adding that the only two mitigating factors that the Crown had to “search for” were that he pleaded guilty early and that it “would appear that he has expressed remorse by doing so.”
“It is our opinion that the accused should not benefit from the discount based on an early guilty plea [for which the Court can give a 33 and third percent discount]. The Crown is of the view that in the present case if Your Lordship decided even to reduce the sentence by up to one percent, it would shock the public conscience,” Llewellyn stated.
She said the fact that the act was “premeditated, cold and callous” and that Barnett “hid the murder implements and took himself way” was even more reason for the judge to “not reduce the sentence at all.”
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