Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter THE TWO women who were charged last year in connection with the murder of Detective Inspector Ancel George Dwyer pleaded guilty yesterday and were given stiff prison sentences.
Sheneika Smith, 21, auto mechanic of 5 Heathfield Avenue, Franklyn Town, Kingston 16 pleaded guilty to non-capital murder. She was sentenced to life imprisonment with a recommendation that she should serve 15 years before she was eligible for parole.
Janice Burgess, 18, auto mechanic, of 53 McCarthur Avenue, Kingston 11, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to 18 years imprisonment at hard labour.
Dwyer's body was found at his home at 4 Sherness Crescent, Washington Gardens, St. Andrew on the night of November 7, 2003. The body had 79 stab wounds.
CASTIGATED
Justice Kay Beckford, in handing down the sentences in the Home Circuit Court, castigated the women for their actions and decried the easy availability of drugs to young people in the country. She said that from the facts outlined, the two accused and the deceased were involved in drugs of some sort because alcohol was found in the room.
Crown Counsel Anthony Armstrong said he was accepting the guilty pleas because he had the authority in law to do so. He said the Crown was accepting Burgess' guilty plea because she had said from the outset when she was held by the police that she was "high on a drug called Ecstasy" when the offence was committed.
In outlining the facts of the case, Mr. Armstrong said that Smith was involved in an intimate relationship with the deceased for sometime prior to the incident. Smith and Burgess were also lovers. He said on November 7, 2003, Burgess asked Smith if she knew where she could get a 'piece' referring to a gun.
He said about 11:30 p.m. on November 7, 2003, the deceased took Smith and her friend Burgess to his house to have sexual intercourse with them in a 'threesome' act. When he undressed and went on the bed he was stabbed repeatedly. The women took his firearm and drove away his motor car. The motor car was found burnt out in Charlemont, St. Catherine.
