Getaway driver in church murder to be sentenced Mar 12
Published:Friday | February 19, 2021 | 12:18 AM
The getaway driver involved in the killing of banker Andrea Lowe-Garwood is to be sentenced in the Home Circuit Court on March 12 on charges of illegal possession of firearm and accessory after the fact to murder.
Leon Hines, who was remanded, pleaded guilty on Thursday to two of the six charges against him under a plea deal, which he signed in court in the presence of the prosecutor; a justice of the peace; and his attorney, Michael Hemmings.
As part of the deal, Hines also pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to murder, murder, accessory before the fact to murder, and misprision of felony. No evidence was offered by the Crown on each count.
The 23-year-old storekeeper of Rose Heights, Montego Bay, St James, has also agreed to give evidence to the Crown during a judge-alone trial. However, he was warned by the prosecutor that the deal would be voided if he failed to fulfil the terms of the agreement.
Hines is charged alongside two other men in connection with the 51-year-old banker’s murder inside a church in Falmouth, Trelawny, on January 31.
Javan ‘Janoy’ Garwood, 29, the stepson of the deceased, is on a murder and conspiracy rap, and Dwight Bingham is charged with murder and illegal possession of firearm. Both men appeared in the Trelawny Parish Court on February 15 and were remanded until March 2.
Lowe-Garwood was shot dead while worshipping at the Agape Christian Fellowship Church, allegedly by a man who sat in the pew behind her.
On Thursday, when Hines’ statement was read in court, it was revealed that he had rented the getaway car two days before the fatal incident.
The court also heard that Hines, in an attempt to cover up his role in the murder, had called the owner of the rented car hours after the killing and told him that the car had been stolen.
Hines told the man that “when he woke up” on the morning of January 31, he discovered the car missing.
However, he later told the car owner that he found the car “down the road” from his house and was instructed to report the matter to the police and to return the vehicle.
While on his way to a police station in Montego Bay, Hines drove to Miriam Way and discarded his phone and a black bag.
However, while he was there, the police apprehended him.
Hines was taken back to Miriam Way, where his phone was recovered, and he later confessed his guilt to the police.