Prosecutors on Friday submitted that Gregory Roberts, the taxi driver who has been convicted of the killing of 15-year-old Green Pond High School student, Shineka Gray, in 2017, should be given a life sentence for the heinous crime.
The stipulated period for parole consideration should not be before Roberts serves a minimum of 50 years in prison, Senior Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions, Andrea Martin-Swaby, recommended in her submission in court.
She was making her closing arguments at Friday’s sentencing hearing for Roberts in the St James Circuit Court.
The matter is to continue on April 12 before High Court Judge, Justice Bertram Morrison, who is to hand down the sentence at the end of the overall court process relative to the case.
On January 24, 2024, a seven-member jury in the St James Circuit Court found Roberts guilty of stabbing Gray multiple times on the night of January 29, 2017.
The body of the grade 10 student was found in bushes three days later in Irwin, St James. She was last seen alive in Montego Bay, St James while on her way home from the funeral of a schoolmate.
Roberts and his then co-accused, Mario Morrison, were later taken into custody in connection with the killing.
Morrison pleaded guilty in September 2022, this after entering a plea deal with the state, and was sentenced to life in prison a month later.
Gray received 19 stab wounds to her neck, arms and torso, according to a post-mortem report.
Roberts’ attorney, Chumu Paris, on Thursday argued that his client is capable of rehabilitation, urging the court to reject the prosecution’s arguments that Roberts is incapable of reform, and should remain behind bars until he serves 50 years before being eligible for parole consideration.
“I submit, my Lord, that the particular range in dealing with this particular matter, I think it is safe to say, is within 15 years to life, but certainly nearer to 20 and upwards, in considering a starting point.
“I am submitting that life imprisonment or 30 years would not be an appropriate starting point in this case,” Paris stated.
But on Friday, Martin-Swaby pushed back at the suggestion that Roberts could be rehabilitated, as she pointed to his previous convictions.
His first conviction was for simple larceny on February 18, 2014, for which he received a non-custodial sentence. The court set a sentence of 12 months in prison, suspended for two years.
After that period expired, Roberts was again hauled to court for escaping custody. He was convicted on April 5, 2016, and sentenced to six months in prison at hard labour.
“Can this court find that Mr Roberts can truly be rehabilitated? Because the court system gave strike one, strike two, but there is a habitual level of criminality that is being demonstrated, and not just habitual, but there is an escalation in the seriousness of the offences,” declared Martin-Swaby.
She said the court must send a “strong message” to the society that the murders of children cannot be tolerated.
Although the prosecution did not pursue the fact that both Roberts and Morrison, the latter testifying against the former, had sex with Gray before the killing while she was underage, Martin-Swaby said the court should contemplate those facts.
Roberts was subsequently remanded in custody until April 12 when the sentencing hearing is expected to conclude.
At the trial, which started in November of 2023, Morrison testified on behalf of the prosecution that Roberts had sex with the teenager in different locations prior to taking her to Irwin, St James, where her body was eventually found.
Morrison, who testified that he also had sex with the teenager that night, said Roberts asked him to video him hugging Gray.
However, he said things took a turn when Roberts began stabbing her multiple times.
When asked why Roberts wanted the video recorded, Morrison said Roberts said he was going to make a “sacrifice”.
During the trial, the prosecution submitted that the case was centred around revenge, as Roberts killed the teenager to get back at an ex-girlfriend who he believed had conned him out of some money.
Morrison testified that Roberts told him why he wanted the incident to be recorded, which was because
“Dem tek mi (Roberts) fi fool and nuh know seh mi a killer”.
But Roberts, in an unsworn statement from the prisoner’s dock, claimed that he was hired as a taxi driver by Morrison.
However, prosecutors produced cell phone evidence showing heated exchanges in messages between Roberts and his ex-girlfriend in the hours leading up to January 29, 2017, the day of Gray’s murder.
“You going to see something you never see before, tomorrow, in Jamaica, and that’s when you going say I am crazy,” Roberts sent in a text message to his ex-girlfriend at 11:47 pm on Sunday, January 28, 2017.
In her closing arguments to the jury at the trial in January, Martin-Swaby said Roberts’ actions were ruthless.
She reminded the jurors that Gray tried to fight her attacker that night, and cried out, “Lord, is this what you’re going to do to your daughter?”
In the end, Gray was savagely murdered.
