The two men convicted of murdering Estella Scott Roberts in October 2008 appeared in court Monday to argue against the judgment of Chief Justice Anthony Smellie that ended with guilty verdicts and sentences of imprisonment for life.
Ian Bourne QC spoke on behalf of Kirkland Henry, who had pleaded guilty before the murder trial to charges of abduction rape and robbery.
His submissions took all of Monday. Robert Fortune QC is scheduled to speak for Larry Prinston Ricketts when court resumes on Tuesday morning. Solicitor General Cheryll Richards QC will then respond to the submissions of both counsel.
Mr. Bourne emphasised Henry’s statements to police about the incident, in which he accepted he was one of two men who took part in the abduction of Mrs. Roberts from a parking lot near a West Bay Road restaurant, taking her to an isolated area of West Bay where she was robbed and raped. It was Henry’s case that he took no part in the murder.
Henry identified Ricketts as his accomplice and the one who murdered Mrs. Roberts.
The Chief Justice convicted both men on the basis of joint enterprise.
Mr. Bourne argued that Henry had withdrawn from the enterprise after the rape and robbery and did not involve himself in the actions of the other man. He agreed that a knife had been brandished but said it was used by Ricketts to threaten.
If the knife had caused the death of Mrs. Roberts, Henry would be liable to be convicted of murder, the attorney continued. But Mrs. Roberts was not stabbed; she was suffocated by the taping of a plastic bag over her head. That was something Henry could not have foreseen, Mr. Bourne argued.
Henry was sentenced in March to 20 years imprisonment for the abduction, rape and robbery; those sentences are also being appealed.
Ricketts, who maintained at trial that he was not at the scene, still faces charges of abduction, rape and robbery.
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