Declaring that his actions will “forever remain etched in the psyche of Barbados”, a High Court judge yesterday imposed six life sentences on Campus Trendz killer Jamar DeWayne Bynoe for the murder of six women who died while hiding as the Tudor Street store was firebombed 14 years ago.
Justice Michelle Weekes ordered that 34-yearold Bynoe must serve a minimum of 55 years, after deductions for time he had spent on remand and delay, before he could be considered for release from prison.
“The traumatic incident, that resulted in six indictments for murder being laid against Jamar Bynoe in 2011, will be etched in the memories of the Barbadian public and the family and friends of the six murder victims for a lifetime and perhaps for generations. This tragedy captured the attention of Barbados at all levels of society,” she said.
“I am satisfied that a custodial sentence is justified and only such a sentence would protect the public from serious harm,” the judge told the murderer yesterday.
Original sentence
However, Bynoe, whose reports said he did not believe he was responsible for the girls’ deaths and that he was more remorseful about the punishment he might face for his actions, rather than for the actions themselves, showed no emotion.
Bynoe, formerly of Headley’s Land, Bank Hall, St Michael, was originally sentenced to hang after he was found guilty, in July 2016, for the murder of Shanna Griffith, Kelly-Ann Welch, Pearl Cornelius, Kellishaw Olivierre, Nikita Belgrave and Tiffany Harding in the blaze of September 3, 2010.
Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Alliston Seale, SC, prosecuted the matters, while Bynoe was represented by Senior Counsel Andrew Pilgrim and attorney Sian Lange.
Bynoe appealed his sentence and conviction but the Court of Appeal told him it had found no merit in the grounds and upheld the conviction.
However, the Court of Appeal said since the mandatory sentence of death had been struck down by the Caribbean Court of Justice, that sentence would be vacated and his matter would be remitted to the High Court judge, who presided over the trial, for him to be re-sentenced.
Yesterday, Justice Weekes, who presided in the No. 2 Supreme Court, said the events unfolded after 5 p.m. when two men entered the clothing store with intent to commit a robbery as an agreed plan.
She said she had considered that Bynoe was armed with a knife when he and his accomplice entered the store; that the store’s
owner was stabbed; that the building was firebombed and that the firebombing had resulted in multiple victims.
‘Horrific’ death
She said the girls died from asphyxiation but suffered “horrifically” before they died. She said five of the girls were dead by the time fire officers got to them and the sixth died shortly after at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
The judge added the offence occurred in a public place.
“You appear unwilling to accept responsibility for the deaths of six precious lives,” the judge said.
“I can find no mitigating factors in the offence and as the aggravating factors outweigh the mitigating factors, my starting point in your case is life imprisonment,” Justice Weekes told Bynoe.
The judge, however, said she had considered Bynoe’s previously clean record and his relatively young age at the time.
She said that despite those mitigating factors, the aggravating factors relating to the offender outweighed them.
Stressing that there were no guidelines for sentences on murder, the judge said she had considered that Bynoe’s accomplice Renaldo Anderson Alleyne, of Prescod Bottom, Hindsbury Road, St Michael, had been given life imprisonment with a tariff of 25 years, by the CCJ.
“It is against that backdrop, and the evidence which revealed that you were the mastermind of the joint enterprise, that I have determined, that in all the circumstances, the minimum time you should serve is 70 years,” the judge said.
Justice Weekes then deducted a year for the delay in the matter and the 5 155 days Bynoe had spent on remand.
She then ordered Bynoe to spend a minimum of 20 046 days, or approximately 55 years, in jail on each count.
“The sentence is intended to reflect the abhorrence of the gruesome murder of six innocent women. You can take him away,” the judge told waiting prison officers. (HLE)
