THE KILLERS of Tahj Burrell and Jason Eldridge have been sentenced to hang.
Justice Basil Reid imposed the sentences on Carl McHargh, 32, and Brian Rankine, 26.
Attorneys-at-law Tom Tavares Finson, who represented McHargh, and Earl DeLisser, who represented Rankine, had argued that the death sentence should not be imposed because notices were not served on them that they could be sentenced to death.
But Bryan Sykes, Senior Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions, in responding to the submissions, said that there was no statutory basis for notices to be served.
He said the Offences Against the Person Act was clear that if a person was convicted of more than one count of non-capital murder then they would be sentenced to death.
"Sentence will proceed as the statute ordains," the judge remarked, upholding Mr. Sykes's submissions.
McHargh admitted to 12 previous convictions for fraud before he was sentenced. But the judge said he would not take the convictions into consideration in passing sentence.
SECOND CHARGE COUNTED
The men were sentenced to life imprisonment on the first count which charged them with Eldridge's murder.
The judge recommended that they should serve 30 years before they were eligible for parole. On the second count charging them with Burrell's murder they were sentenced to death.
A Home Circuit Court jury retired at 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday and deliberated for seven hours before convicting them.
Burrell, son of Captain Horace Burrell, former president of the Jamaica Football Federation, and Eldridge, son of Noel Eldridge, retired Assistant Commissioner of Police, were gunned down at the Northside Plaza, Liguanea, St. Andrew, on the night of July 25, 1999.
