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Collette Anthony Jackson, Khanice Jackson's stepmother
By Racquel Porter
Robert Fowler, the St. Catherine mechanic who confessed to killing 20-year-old Khanice Jackson two years ago, has been given a life sentence.
Fowler is to serve 22 years and 11 months before being eligible for parole.
Justice Leighton Pusey, prior to imposing the sentence in the Home Circuit Court on Thursday afternoon, took into account a number of factors including Fowler's attempt to conceal Miss Jackson's body, the convict's age and him betraying the victim's trust.
The convict was 50 years old at the time of the murder.
Justice Pusey also took into account the overwhelming evidence and gave Fowler a 15 per cent discount for entering a guilty plea.
Fowler, clad in a blue polo shirt and black pants, showed no emotion when the sentence was handed down.
Miss Jackson's decomposing body was found in a ditch along Dyke Road in St. Catherine on March 26, 2021, two days after family members reported her missing.
Fowler gave police investigators a caution statement, in the presence of his attorney, detailing how he and the victim got into an argument inside his car.
He stated that the argument was about money and described how he slid over to the back seat and used a rope to strangle the 20-year-old woman.
Fowler and Miss Jackson were not involved in a romantic relationship, but he had promised her money to buy a gift for her boyfriend.
Miss Jackson's stepmother Collette Anthony Jackson and father Roy, who attended the sentencing hearing, say although they are satisfied with the ruling, they have been sentenced to mourn for life.
"We may be a little more, maybe a little comforted but there is no comparison. There is nothing to state because what we lost is not something that a sentence can make up for…. He was given his due process, but as a family, the pain that you feel, that needs its due process and that may take the rest of our lives to give that to ourselves," Mrs Jackson said.