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Construction worker gets life sentence for two murders, other felonies

By Racquel Porter    
 
Deandre Grant, the convict who killed a man and a woman and wounded two others in separate shooting incidents between last December and July this year, has been sentenced to life in prison.
 
He is to serve 23 years and six months before the possibility of parole.
 
The 21-year-old construction worker of Bellefield district, Manchester, and Canaan Heights, May Pen, Clarendon, pleaded guilty last month to two counts each of murder and wounding with intent, six counts of making use of a firearm to commit a felony, and three counts of assault with intent to rob.
 
Justice Leighton Pusey in handing down the sentence accepted the sentence recommendations of Director of Public Prosecutions Paula Llewellyn, but credited Grant for the six months he spent in custody.
 
Grant was given two life sentences for the murder of 21-year-old Soniel Muschett and Catherine Matthews.
 
Justice Pusey, during the sentencing, remarked that these serious offences were more notable because of the young age of the perpetrator and further that the circumstances of the woman's murder were particularly worrying as no motive was given for the attack.
 
In arriving at the sentences, the judge took Grant's guilty plea, his age, the social enquiry report and the submissions of both the DPP and Grant's lawyer, Paul Gentles into consideration.
 
In the first murder incident, Grant and his accomplices shot and killed 21-year-old Soniel Muschette, otherwise called 'Shine', a construction worker of Comfort district, Manchester, on December 8, 2022, about 4 p.m.
 
Muschette was murdered along the Kendal Bridge in the parish.
 
In the second murder incident, which occurred on March 3, this year, Catherine Matthews, a chef of New Green district, Manchester, and her common-law husband were walking home in their community when Grant and others attacked them.
 
The hoodlums opened fire on the couple, hitting them multiple times, before escaping in the area. The injured people were transported to hospital, where Matthews was pronounced dead and her spouse treated.
 
Grant struck again at a plaza in Mandeville on March 6, where two security guards were attacked by three men, one of whom was armed with a handgun. The attackers then restrained and demanded money from one of the two guards. The demands were not met, and a tussle ensued. But the perpetrators fled after a gun went off.
 
Grant's last victim, a minimart and bar operator, was shot and injured on July 20, at 12:45 a.m, after hosting an event.
 
Following, the series of incidents, Grant was arrested on August 2, in Westmoreland in relation to a separate incident. He was later handed over to the Manchester police and charges laid against him on October 4.


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