Convicted murderer who beheaded victim wants sentence shortened
Published:Wednesday | November 9, 2022 | 12:11 AM
A St Ann labourer who beheaded a man and set fire to his body, after allegedly accusing him of passing on an HIV/AIDS infection, will today attempt to convince the Court of Appeal to shorten the 20-year period he must serve as part of his life sentence before parole.
The 29-year-old murder convict Neville Lewis, who had also inflicted multiple chop and stab wounds to the now-deceased Burnett Thomas, had reportedly enlisted the help of Thomas’ lover, Howard Ricketts, in the gruesome 2012 killing.
Lewis pleaded guilty to the murder in May 2014 in the St Ann’s Bay Circuit Court and was sentenced the following month to life in prison, with a stipulation that he serve 20 years before becoming eligible for parole.
The killer subsequently took issue with the sentence and filed an appeal.
The lone grounds on which the challenge was initiated is that the trial judge erred in failing to adequately demonstrate how he arrived at the sentence and whether he applied the relevant principle in sentencing the appellant.
Attorney-at-law Kemoy McEkron will be arguing on the appellant’s behalf in the hearing, which is scheduled to get under way today in the Court of Appeal.
HEINOUS ACT
The early-morning murder took place at Lewis’ home in Brown’s Town, St Ann, on March 25.
On the day of the incident, Lewis and Thomas were at home when they had an argument around 4 a.m. after Lewis reportedly accused Thomas of giving him the disease.
During the quarrel, Lewis retrieved a machete from under the bed and used it to chop Thomas several times.
The attack moved from the bedroom to the living room, where Thomas was chopped on the neck, resulting in him falling to the ground.
Lewis, with the help of Ricketts, a security guard, dragged the injured man back into the bedroom and put him on the bed. They both chopped and stabbed him multiple times.
Lewis then decapitated Thomas and placed the head in a rice bag before setting the bed on fire with the body.
The police were summoned and Thomas’ headless body was found on a mattress after the blaze was extinguished.
The dead man‘s decomposed head was found four days later near a manhole in Orange Hill district, Brown’s Town, after a witness detected the stench and went to investigate.
Both men were arrested and charged.
Lewis, in a caution statement to the police, told the police that he killed Thomas after he asked him to perform oral sex.
Meanwhile, Ricketts, who pleaded not guilty to murder, was found guilty in November 2016 and was similarly sentenced to life in prison 2017.
Ricketts, in his unsworn statement, testified that he witnessed Lewis chopping Thomas following an argument and that Lewis ordered him to take part in the act.
He admitted that he assisted Lewis to pull Thomas to the bedroom, where he then inflicted stab wounds to the chest and intestinal area with a machete.
“Officer, a di bwoy Neville cause this pon mi. A him say mi fi help him, and look wah happen,” Ricketts had reportedly told the police.