Appeal under way after conviction for husband's murder
Published:Friday | November 5, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter
Legal arguments began yesterday in the appeal brought by 30-year-old Melody Pellinen of Lyssons, St Thomas, who was convicted in December 2007 of the murder of her Finnish husband.
Pellinen was sentenced to life imprisonment and ordered to serve 21 years before being eligible for parole.
The jury found her guilty of the murder of 53-year-old Tino Pellinen, a medical doctor from Finland.
Evidence was led at the trial in the Trelawny Circuit Court that Pellinen conspired with a man to murder her husband so she could benefit from his estate in Finland, which was valued at millions of US dollars.
Marvin Stewart, also of Lyssons, who was charged jointly with Pellinen, was freed this week after the Crown offered no further evidence against him.
The Crown's case was that, on October 1, 2005, Pellinen picked up her husband at the Donald Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay, St James. She was taking him to a hotel in Ocho Rios, St Ann, when she stopped along the Harmony Hall main road to urinate. A motor car bumped into the vehicle while Mrs Pellinen was outside. Dr Pellinen, upon hearing the crash, came out to find out what had happened and was fatally shot. While Mrs Pellinen was in custody, she confessed to another inmate how the murder occurred.
Dr Pellinen had willed all his properties in Finland to his wife. It was part of the prenuptial agreement that if they were divorced, she would not benefit from his properties but in case of death, she would be the sole beneficiary.
Quash her conviction
Mrs Pellinen, who is being represented by attorney-at-law Robert Fletcher, is asking the Court of Appeal to quash her conviction, set aside the sentence and enter a verdict of acquittal because the circumstantial evidence given at her trial was insufficient to prove the case against her.
Attorney-at-law Kathy Pyke, who is representing the Crown, has asked the court to uphold the conviction.
The appeal hearing was adjourned yesterday and lawyers for the defence and the Crown have been given time to tender further written submissions before the court hands down its decision.