A JUDGE recommended Thursday that a man who was being convicted for the second time of non-capital murder should serve 50 years in prison.
Although the law states that a person who has two or more murder convictions must be sentenced to death, Justice Wesley James did not impose the death sentence on 25-year-old Everton Simpson, of 115A Barbican Road, St. Andrew.
Simpson also called "Red Rat", was first convicted in 2002 of murder and was sentenced to life imprisonment with a recommendation that he should serve 25 years before he was eligible for parole.
He was convicted in the Clarendon Circuit Court of the murder of Lorenzo Bedward, salesman, of Rosewell, Clarendon who was fatally shot after he was robbed of money at a shop at James Hill, Clarendon on July 26, 2000.
Last week Thursday, Simpson was convicted of the murder of Matthew Rogers, also called "Five Cents", of Barbican Road and sentencing was put off until Friday in the Home Circuit Court. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a recommendation that he should serve 25 years before he was eligible for parole. The judge recommended that the prison sentences should be consecutive so Simpson would serve 50 years.
Evidence was given at the trial last week that about 2. 30 p.m. on February 21, 2000, a policeman was walking along Barbican Road when he saw three men including Simpson firing at a man who was on the ground. The policeman shouted "police" and the men fired at him. He returned the fire and the men escaped. The man who they were firing at was later identified as Rogers and he was pronounced dead at hospital that same day. A warrant was obtained for Simpson's arrest and he was apprehended in September 2001.
Simpson said in his defence he had nothing to do with the murder and he was not on Barbican Road on the day of the incident.
