Murder convict loses appeal despite 15-year delay because of missing sentencing section of transcript

A man whose appeal was delayed for almost 15 years because the sentencing section of the transcript cannot be found has lost his challenge against his convictions for a triple murder in Watson Grove, St Catherine in February 2004.

He is Romaine Thomas who was convicted on April 17, 2009, for the murder of Paul Henry, Cleto Atkinson, and Anthony Hunter.

He was sentenced on July 31, 2009, to life imprisonment on each count and ordered to serve 20 years before he could be eligible for parole.

One of his grounds of appeal was that the incompleteness of the transcript breached his constitutional rights and the Court of Appeal agreed.

Thomas was 17 years old at the time of the incident and it was argued that it was not known if the judge had taken that into consideration in sentencing him. 

It was also argued that the most appropriate remedy would be the quashing of the sentence because Thomas had already spent 15 years in prison.

The court ruled that the absence of that section of the transcript did not prevent the court from determining the appropriateness of the penalty imposed.

“In all the circumstances, it seems to us that the most appropriate remedy would be a public acknowledgement that there was a breach of the appellant's constitutional rights under section 16(7) of the Charter,” the court comprising Justice Jennifer Straw, Justice Nicole Foster-Pusey and Justice Vivienne Harris ruled.

King's Counsel Ian Wilkinson and attorney-at-law Lenroy Stewart had argued several other grounds of appeal seeking to have the convictions overturned.

An eyewitness had testified that on the night of the incident he heard gunshots being fired.

He said he knew the appellant for about three years and on the night of the shooting he saw the appellant and another man who were armed with guns.

Thomas appealed on the grounds that the judge should have upheld the no-case submission because the identification evidence was weak, manifestly unreliable, and uncorroborated.

Senior Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Kathy Pyke submitted that the judge was correct not to uphold the no-case submission because the evidence of the chain of circumstances constituted sufficient prima facie material, from which a jury could determine the appellant's guilt or innocence.

The court, in dismissing the appeal last month, ordered that the sentence must commence from July 31, 2009, the date it was imposed.

- Barbara Gayle

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