Appeal Court reduces parole eligibility for rape, murder convict

The parole eligibility has been reduced for one of the four men who in 2005 abducted, shot and dumped three women in a pit in Greenwich Town, St Andrew.

The Court of Appeal this week granted an application for full credit for the time spent in custody before trial for 34-year-old Chadrick Gordon.

Gordon was convicted in 2010 along with three men for the fatal shooting of two of the women.

He was given the death penalty because he was reported to be the mastermind behind the double murder as he was the one who was armed with a gun.

Gordon appealed and in December 2012, the Court of Appeal set aside the death sentence and sent back his case to the Supreme Court for re-sentencing.

READ: Court throws out appeal of men convicted of 'chilling' murders

He was sentenced to life imprisonment and ordered to serve 27 years before he could be eligible for parole.

Attorney-at-law Gaurica Makhijani from the law firm Knight, Junor and Samuels argued this week that there was an omission and/or oversight by the appellate court to give full credit to the applicant for the time he spent on remand pending his trial.

She submitted that, generally, a convicted individual's legal entitlement to be credited for any time spent in custody before trial was a settled principle enshrined in the Constitution.

She argued that in the interest of justice and fairness, the applicant was only asking that the court recognise the time already spent to be correctly recorded.

The court upheld the submissions and ordered that Gordon would become eligible for parole after serving 23 years, four months and four days instead of 27 years. 

“The success of this application reinforces the rights of individuals to their personal liberty and that even in the face of a conviction, full credit must generally be given to that person for the time they spent in custody,” Makhijani commented.

Gordon along with Desmond Kennedy, Alton Heath and Marlon Duncan, all of Greenwich Town addresses, were convicted of the murder of Katrina Webb and Simone Vernon, both 20 years old.

Three women were abducted from a bar at Newport West and taken to a playfield in Greenwich Town where they were raped by men including the abductors.

The women were shot and dumped into a pit.

One of the women managed to crawl out of the pit and a report was made to the police. 

The Court of Appeal dismissed the men's appeal against their convictions in December 2012. 

The bodies of the women were never found despite searches which included the use of underwater camera technology.

- Barbara Gayle

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