Jason Palmer v R

• Jurisdiction: Jamaica
• Judge: Morrison P
• Judgment Date: 22 January 2018
• Neutral Citation: JM 2018 CA 53
• Docket Number: SUPREME COURT CRIMINAL APPEAL NO 41/2012
• Year: 2018
• Court: Court of Appeal (Jamaica)

[2018] JMCA Crim 6

IN THE COURT OF APPEAL

Before:

THE HON Mr Justice Morrison P

THE HON Mr Justice Brooks JA

THE HON Mrs Justice Sinclair-Haynes JA

SUPREME COURT CRIMINAL APPEAL NO 41/2012

Jason Palmer

and

R

Ravil Golding for the applicant

Miss Maxine Jackson and Stephen Smith for the Crown

Morrison P

1 This is an application for leave to appeal against a conviction and sentence for murder, after a trial before D McIntosh and jury, in the Circuit Court for the parish of Saint Elizabeth. The jury returned a verdict of guilty of murder on 2 March 2012 and, on 19 March 2012, the applicant was sentenced to life imprisonment, with a stipulation that he should serve a minimum of 30 years' imprisonment before becoming eligible for parole.

2 The application for leave to appeal against both conviction and sentence was first considered on paper by a single judge of this court on 25 November 2015, when it was refused. Accordingly, as he is entitled to do, the applicant now renews the application before the court.

3 The applicant was convicted of the gruesome murder on 2 April 2007 of Mr Lesburn Watson, an elderly pensioner, in the district of Goshen in Saint Elizabeth. The conviction was based on overwhelming circumstantial evidence. Before us this morning, Mr Golding for the applicant has accepted – if we may say so, perfectly realistically — that there is no basis upon which the conviction can be successfully challenged. It is clear that the application for leave to appeal against conviction cannot succeed.

4 However, the applicant now seeks leave to appeal against sentence, on the single ground that, in stipulating that the applicant should serve a minimum of 30 years in prison before parole, the judge failed to take into consideration the fact that he had already spent close to five years in custody while awaiting trial. The issue arises because, as the record confirms, the applicant was taken to hospital in police custody, having been rescued from the irate citizens who set upon him shortly after Mr Watson was killed on 2 April 2007. By the time he was sentenced on 19 March 2012, therefore, he had been in custody for just two weeks short of five years.

5 Mr Golding very helpfully referred us to recent decisions of this court on this point, such as Meisha Clement v R [2016] JMCA Crim 26 and Richard Brown v R [2016] JMCA Crim 29. Both cases confirm that, in sentencing a convicted offender, the now...