A 15-month transcript delay has cost the Crown its chance to challenge the 26-year minimum term before parole imposed on Andre Thomas for the 2016 killing of two American missionaries in St Mary.
The Court of Appeal last month ruled that the Crown's appeal against the sentence was statute-barred because it was not heard within the 12 months prescribed by law.
The court also rejected a subsequent attempt by the prosecution to revive the matter by filing a renewed application for leave to appeal.
The case is one of the significant early tests of the Crown's limited statutory right to appeal sentences, introduced in 2021 as part of major changes to Jamaica's criminal justice system via amendments to the Judicature (Appellate Jurisdiction) (Amendment) Act and the Judicature (Parish Courts) (Amendment) Act.
The St Mary labourer was convicted of two counts of murder on July 27, 2023, following a 19-day jury trial in the Home Circuit Court before Justice Leighton Pusey.
He was sentenced on November 10, 2023 to two concurrent life sentences, with a minimum of 26 years at hard labour before becoming eligible for parole.
Thomas's cousin, 32 year-old Dwight Henry, the prosecution's key witness, pleaded guilty to the murders under a plea deal and was sentenced to life imprisonment, with a stipulation that he serve 28 years in prison before becoming eligible for parole.
The bodies of American missionaries Harold Nichols and Randy Hentzel were found in Wentworth district, St Mary, on April 30 and May 1, 2016, respectively.
Thomas has also appealed his conviction and sentence.
Although a single judge refused his application, he renewed it on July 24, 2025, and that appeal is still awaiting a hearing before the Court of Appeal.
SOURCE: Gleaner
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