Baptiste & Edwards get life without parole for murder of Keri Harrigan
The sentence was handed down by Justice Albert Redhead in the High Court this morning, March 27, 2013.
Baptiste and Edwards were found guilty on March 6, 2013 for the murder of Keri Harrigan on March 16, 2011.
A strong sentenced was very much anticipated when Justice Redhead said the crime fell in the category of "the worst of the worse cases and is so exceptionally high that it warrants a whole life order”. He said he considered the killing as “cold blooded murder”.
Both Allen Baptiste and Yan Edwards walked into the courtroom in all smiles on the day their fate of prison life was going to be determined.
Senior Crown council Valston Graham told the court at the sentencing hearing that there were a number of aggravating factors. He said that one was that the plot was started at a place that was designed to save the lives of persons and the other was at the home of an Allen Wheatley where Edwards brandished a gun in the air and said "I going to give keri some of this."
Graham described the murder as premeditated, savage, brutal, and executed viciously.
"It was an execution," he said emphatically and is a case that is fitting for a whole life order without the possibility of parole.
He also said that the public should be protected from the two as they both refused to cooperate with probation officers and remained on their block declining to be interviewed.
The trial commenced on February 19, 2013 with an indictment, which contained two counts. Count one charged Mr Edwards and Mr Baptiste with the murder of Keri Harrigan while count two charged Mr Edwards and a Mr Simmonds with conspiracy to murder Melbourne Francis.
On March 6, 2013, the defendants Yan Edwards and Allen Baptiste were convicted by a unanimous jury on the sole count of the indictment, which charged them with the Murder of Keri Harrigan.
According to the sentencing guidelines, both defendants in separate audio and visual interviews with the Police denied committing the offence. They both claimed to be friends of the deceased. Neither defendant gave evidence at trial, but both relied upon alibi.
Edwards’ alibi was that he was at Allen Wheatley’s residence in East End at the time Keri Harrigan was murdered. According to him, he visited Wheatley's residence sometime around 6 P.M. He told Police that he heard of Harrigan's shooting from Mr Allen Wheatley, when Wheatley arrived home. Wheatley agreed that he met Edwards on his arrival home that night, but disagreed that he Wheatley told Edwards of Harrigan’s murder. Instead, Wheatley’s evidence was that Edwards was the one who initiated the conversation about the murder.
Edwards called one witness in his defence. Irvin “Basha” Smith gave evidence that Vaughn Cameron did not visit his home on March 15, 2011 for a scale. He also relied on a witness statement of Samantha Gilbert, which she gave to the Police. In the statement, Gilbert spoke of two telephone calls she received from Edwards whilst he was in Prison where he requested that she should destroy her boyfriend Vaughn Cameron's phone.
Baptiste’s account was that following work on March 16, 2011 he went directly home and never left until the following morning. He had told Police in an audio/visual interview that he only became aware of the murder the following day, March 17 2011. Allen Wheatley’s evidence at trial was that he left Josiah's Bay just after 7:10 P.M., drove to East End, Long Look and came upon the incident. He spent some 15 minutes there, following which he drove to another location before heading home.
Defense Counsel Stephen Daniels noted that it was a difficult task to mitigate against Yan Edwards. "There is little or no mitigating factor for Yan Edwards at least for today in court," said Stephen.
He said that the case did not reach the worst of worse cases threshold. As Daniels sought to justify Edwards’ refusal to cooperate with the probation officer, Justice Redhead interjected saying, "I do not agree with you it is a lack of contrition."
Mr Daniels was suggesting that his client was non-cooperative with the officer as he might have been angry with the court decision of finding him guilty.
Attorney at Law Mr Thompson, who represented Mr Baptiste, told the court that his client is without a previous conviction. He also suggested that the refusal of his client to cooperate with the social inquiry should not be used against him as it would have yielded very little or nothing and a process would have wasted the court's valuable time.
Both Thompson and Daniels had admonished the court to institute a sentence in the 30 years category as a starting point.
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63 Responses to “Baptiste & Edwards get life without parole for murder of Keri Harrigan”
THANK YOU JUDGE REDHEAD!!!!!!
MH NEED TO BE INVESTIGATED AND LOCK UP TOO, AINT BECAUSE HIS FATHER IS AN INSPECTOR DOESNT MEAN THAT HES ABOVE THE LAW!