Gangster gets life for murder as DPP wins historic appeal

Westmoreland gangster Lindell Powell, who received a 12-year sentence for murder, has now been sentenced to life in prison after the Court of Appeal agreed with the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions that the sentence was "unduly lenient".

It's the DPP's first use of a law that gives the prosecution a right to appeal sentences.

Justice Frank Williams handed down the ruling Friday morning.

The Appeal Court imposed life sentences for each of the two counts of murder on which he was convicted.

Powell will have to serve 20 years and seven months on one count and 24 years and seven months on the second, both at hard labour, before being eligible for parole. 

Because the sentences will run at the same time, he will have to serve 24 years before his eligibility for parole can be considered. 

The former member of the notorious Kings Valley Gang in Westmoreland was sentenced to 12 years in the Westmoreland Circuit Court on December 2021 with a stipulation that he was to serve 10 years before considerations for parole. 

He had pleaded guilty to the 2017 murders of Oral McIntosh and Ida Clarke which took place in Westmoreland in separate incidents. 

However, DPP Paula Llewellyn, who had described the sentence as unduly lenient, took issue with the parole eligibility period.

The DPP later filed an appeal.

The prosecution got the limited right to appeal sentences and acquittals following amendments to the Judicature (Appellate Jurisdiction) (Amendment) Act that took effect in November 2021. 

The DPP had called for the murderer to be sentenced to life imprisonment with eligibility for parole between 20 to 28 years. 

At the time of his murder conviction, Powell had convictions for two firearm offences and was sentenced in August 2019 to 18 months' imprisonment on each count. 

The DPP also argued that the convict's fixed sentence was inappropriate, especially given his previous conviction.  

But attorney-at-law Dionne Meyler Barrett, who represented Powell, had asked the court not to disturb the sentence. 

She argued that the sentencing judge, Justice Bertram Morrison, did not err in principle or in law.

- Tanesha Mundle

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