By Barbara Gayle, Staff ReporterTHE COURT of Appeal yesterday made recommendations as to the number of years the two men convicted of murdering Detective Corporal George Dewar should serve before they are eligible for parole.
Marlon Moodie, 28, is to serve 30 years imprisonment while 18-year-old Andrew Hunter, also called 'Henkel', is to serve 15 years. In July this year the United Kingdom Privy Council set aside the men's capital murder convictions. Non-capital murder convictions were substituted and the Privy Council sentenced them to life imprisonment. The men's case were remitted to the Court of Appeal for a determination as to the number of years they should serve before parole.
Detective Cpl. Dewar was shot dead on November 5, 1998, while on patrol with other policemen in McIntyre Villa, also known as Dunkirk, in east Kingston. Evidence was given that four men, including Moodie and Hunter who were all armed with guns, fired on the police vehicle. The policemen alighted from the vehicle and gave chase. During the chase, police witnesses said, they saw Hunter and Moodie firing shots at the deceased.
The men were convicted in March 2000 of capital murder. Moodie was sentenced to hang while Hunter was ordered detained at the Governor-General's pleasure because he was under the age of 18 at the time of the offence.
20 YEARS BEFORE PAROLE
Moodie and Hunter appealed in 2001 to the Court of Appeal against their convictions and sentences. Moodie's appeal was dismissed. The court varied Hunter's sentence to life imprisonment with a recommendation that he should serve 20 years before parole.
They took their case to the Privy Council which held that the trial judge "was wrong to deprive the jury of the opportunity of considering whether in the light of mixed statements, the Crown had proved in the case of each appellant that the 'trigger man' test was satisfied. The Privy Council said that the judge should have directed the jury to consider the alternative verdict of non-capital murder, based on the evidence presented at the trial. The Privy Council pointed out that there was no proof as to which of the men fired the fatal shots.
The 'trigger man test' applies only to the person who commits the act of violence on the victim and that person alone would be guilty of capital murder.
