Jamaican gets life sentence for Bermudian murder

A 26-year-old Jamaican national and his Bermudian brother-in-law were jailed for life on Friday for murdering a 30-year-old man on Boxing Day 2007.



Jamaican Philip Bradshaw and Bermudian Antoine Anderson were found guilty of murdering Aquil Richardson, a Bermudian, by the unanimous verdict of a Supreme Court jury after almost six hours of deliberation.



The verdict was greeted with relief by the victim\'s mother. \"Justice has been served,\" said Shahidah Abdur-Rahim.



The pair, who had pleaded not guilty, was sent to Westgate, the island\'s maximum security prison, to begin at least 15 years behind bars.



The jury had heard during the month-long trial how Bradshaw shot the victim dead at point blank range in Camp Hill, Southampton.



The two men were also convicted of wounding another man, Lavar Smith, in the same incident.



According to prosecutors, Bradshaw was the passenger and gunman on a motorbike ridden by his brother-in-law.



The motorbike allegedly drew up near a group of men including Richardson in Camp Hill sometime between 8:30pm and 9 pm on December 26, 2007.



Eyewitnesses told the court that the gunman, who wore a black fur-trimmed jacket, shot at the group and injured Smith in the leg.



He was then said to have got off the bike and shot Richardson twice in the head at close range as he lay on the ground.



Prosecution witness Malika Gumbs told the court during the trial that Bradshaw borrowed a black fur-trimmed jacket from her and rode off on the back of a bike with Anderson on the night in question.



Defence lawyers had sought to undermine what one described as the \"abject poverty\" of the case against the two defendants.



Anderson\'s lawyer Benjamin Nolan QC said of the charges against him and Bradshaw: \"They\'ve got it badly wrong. They\'ve got the wrong men.\"