GUILTY!

ONE OF the three men implicated in the murder and kidnapping of opposition lawmaker Phillip Paulwell’s infant daughter and her mother has pleaded guilty and is to be sentenced on November 15 in the Home Circuit Court.

The defendant pleaded guilty to two counts of murder and two counts of kidnapping on Wednesday.

However, his name is being withheld for safety reasons.

Three other persons charged in the case – two men and a woman – remain before the court.

Reports are that the man who pleaded guilty drove the killers to Wareika Hills, St Andrew, where 10-month-old Sarayah Paulwell and her mother, 27-year-old Toshyna Patterson, were murdered.

It is further reported that he was the person who had collected part payment from the accused mastermind, Leoda Bradshaw, and handed it over to the men.

Bradshaw, who is Paulwell’s companion and the mother of one of his children, is alleged to have offered the killer $500,000 to murder the woman and her child.

The mother and daughter were abducted from their home on Gilmore Drive in St Andrew on September 9.

They were allegedly taken to east Kingston, where they were shot dead and their bodies burned.

Attorneys-at-law Valeria Neita Robertson and Rita Allen-Brown represented the man who was arraigned.

Earlier this month, Bradshaw and her cousin, Roland Balfour, who are also charged in the matter, appeared in court and were remanded until December.

Bradshaw, a 34-year-old US Navy officer, was charged with two counts each of capital murder, conspiracy to murder, kidnapping, and conspiracy to kidnapping.

Balfour was charged with two counts each of accessory before the fact to kidnapping and accessory before the fact to murder.

The allegations were disclosed earlier this month in the Home Circuit Court in Kingston after Bradshaw and Balfour were brought before Justice Simone Wolfe Reece on a voluntary bill of indictment to bypass proceedings in the parish court.

According to the allegations, on September 5, Bradshaw learnt of the child’s existence and contacted Patterson via Facebook while introducing herself as the parliamentarian’s wife.

During that exchange, she reportedly advised Patterson to conduct a paternity test, but following the conversation, the woman blocked her on the social media platform.

The following day, Bradshaw, who resides in the United States, reportedly arrived on the island on a mission to murder the woman and child.

With Balfour’s help, Bradshaw reportedly contracted men to kidnap and murder the mother and daughter.

Later that night, the men reportedly went to check out the area where Patterson lived.

It is further alleged that on September 7, they went to a home in Stony Hill, St Andrew, where Bradshaw was staying, to discuss the execution of the kidnapping and murder plot.

Two days later, before 7 a.m., Bradshaw reportedly made several calls to Patterson with a view to luring her out of her home but was unsuccessful.

Based on evidential material, Bradshaw showed up at Patterson’s Gilmore Drive, Kingston 20, home at 7 a.m. in a tinted SUV.

Patterson and her baby entered the vehicle, where they remained for more than 15 minutes.

The vehicle then left the area, and the mother and child were taken to Stony Hill, where they were handed over to men who reportedly transported them to Wareika Hill.

Police officers later visited the crime scene and found dried bones and blood near the area where the two are believed to have been killed.

In the meantime, the fourth defendant, Rushane Miller, who is charged with two counts each of accessory before the fact of murder and accessory before the fact of kidnapping, is scheduled to return to court in the coming days.

Attorneys-at-law Debra Martin and Kelly Hamilton are representing Bradshaw.

Attorneys-at-law Bert Samuels, Matthew Hyatt, and Courtney Rowe are representing Balfour.

tanesha.mundle@gleanerjm.com