The six-week double murder trial of 39-year-old Garland Marriott of Boon Hall, St Andrew, ended yesterday with the jury deliberating for more than an hour and finding him guilty of the charges.

Marriott was convicted of the murder of 79-year-old farmer Almando Warren and his common-law wife, 47-year-old Clover Robinson, of Fyffes Pen, St Elizabeth.

He will be sentenced on Novem-ber 7.

The trial began on September 17, before Justice Lloyd Hibbert in the Home Circuit Court.

Lisa Palmer, acting senior deputy director of public prosecutions, and Natalie Ebanks, Crown counsel, led evidence that Marriott murdered the couple between June 14 and 15, 2003, at their home in Fyffes Pen.

Strangled, stabbed

Warren was strangled with a length of electrical cord which was wrapped several times around the neck, while Robinson was stabbed several times.

The Crown relied on circumstantial and scientific evidence to prove its case against Marriott.

Blood matching the DNA profile of the accused Marriott was found at the murder scene.

Marriott said in his defence that a contractor from Kingston had employed him to do electrical work at the couple's home in April 2003.

He said he left Fyffes Pen in April 2003 and returned to Kingston. He said he did not go back to Fyffes Pen until the police took him there in June 2004.