For committing an arrogant, cruel, cold-blooded murder Shawn Andre Weekes was today sentenced to life in prison.
This was the sentence handed down by Justice Carlisle Greaves who also cautioned about the degree of weight placed on the youthful age of accused men when sentencing.
“I do so with some caution….I think courts must be careful about the degree of weight they place on the youthful age of the accused men in firearms cases because it is not the old men who are arming themselves with firearms and are shooting up our communities. It is the youth and it is them whom we must deter.”
Weekes was charged with murdering Leo Callender on the 29th of October, 2000, in St Philip. He was just 17 at the time of the offence.
He pleaded not guilty to the charge when he went to trial. On October 16, 2020 a jury returned with a unanimous guilty verdict.
The evidence revealed that on Sunday 29th October 2000, a group of persons, including Callender, was liming by a shop in Crane, St Philip when the accused and a group of young men arrived and attacked the victim.
The accused had a gun in hand and shot the victim in the thigh and as Callender tried to crawl away toward the entrance of the shop, the accused followed him and shot him again in the buttocks.
Several of those present with the victim ran away as a result of the shootings. Some were witnesses in the trial.
A post mortem revealed that Callender died of haemorrhage and shock from a gunshot injury to the abdomen.
The evidence also revealed that Weekes left the island a short time after and travelled to St Lucia, then to Canada and then to the United States of America. After 11 years, he was extradicted to Barbados in 2011 when he was arrested, charged and remanded.
The prosecution suggested a sentence of 45 year’ imprisonment.
The aggravating factors identified included: significant physical suffering of the victim, the use of a dangerous firearm, a pre-arming with it by the assaillant, a high degree of brutality, cruelty, depravity and callousness by the assailant, the commission of the crime in a public place, putting others at risk, premeditation, serious impact on the victim’s family as illustrated by the victim impact statement of his mother and the prevalence of these offences in the society.
The mitigating factors were said to be his young age of 17 at the time, lack of maturity and his low risk of reoffending as assessed in his presentencing report.
The defence, on the other hand, asked the court to consider three factors, namely the significant delay in this case, the age of the accused at the time of the offence and that he has now reachedthe age of 37 and apparently reformed.
Accepting that there is no sentencing guidelines or statutes for the sentencing of youthful offenders for the offence of murder in Barbados, Andrew Pilgrim Q.C. cited some other jurisdictions that set out the principle for the sentencing of youthful offenders which appears to be at maximum a period of life in prison with parole at seven years. For younger persons it appears to be less with parol at 4 years.
Referring to a local case, Pilgrim submitted that the accused should be credited with some discount for delay for which he is not at fault. He submitted that in addition, the accused has been in custody for 2158 days which he said is effectively 8 ½ years served and that this should be deducted from his sentence.
Pilgrim also submitted that in all the circumstances the starting point should be 20 years imprisonment.
“This was an arrogant, cruel, cold-blooded murder, committed with an unlawfully held firearm in the presence of several members of the community in public view. His defence was a not me defence. He nor the evidence offered any basis upon which the murder could be predicated. Any expression of remorse came only at the late stage of his allocutus. In my opinion therefore this murder attracts a sentence of no less than life sentence imprisonment,” Justice Greaves said.
The judge said: “The murder was committed by the assailant in the company and [with] assistance of a gang of young men which he apparently lead in a spiteful enterprise after earlier seeing the victim enter the vicinity. Thus, there is evidence of premeditation and determination to shoot and possibly kill the victim since after the first shot to the leg, the assailant followed and shot him again even as the victim crawled helplessly on the ground in pain.”
The court considered the mitigating factors, to be his young age of 17 at the time and his lack of maturity.
In the circumstances, the judge said a proper tariff at which Weekes may be subject to release order is 35 years.
The delay in this case was also frowned upon by the court.
Weekes was committed for trial in 2015, indicted in 2016 , bailed in 2017, made his first High Court appearance in August 2020, tried in October 2020 and is now sentenced in May 2021. It was described as a substantial delay of over 20 years since the date of the offence. His absence from the island contributed to that.
“The unexplicable delay of a further nine years before his first appearance at the High Court for trial appears to be wholly intolerable and inexcusable.”
After Weekes’ indictment in 2016 and bail in 2017 he was not brought to court, not even when he applied for bail in 2017. He also had two trial dates fixed at his first appearance in August 2020.
“All this, for a man who allegedly committed a serious murder in his community in the presence of adult people to whom he was known. [He] did so with an unlawful firearm, in an age of serious firearm incidents, fled the island immediately after, stayed away for 11 years and never came back until he was deported.”
The judge continued: “If there was no urgency to bring this case to trial, one is left to ask or think well what case would they be interested in. No wonder we are so backlogged and no wonder our deviant offenders, particularly our firearm defendants seem to think they can do as they please with immunity.”
Based on this the court offered no reduction in the 35 years since Weekes contributed to the 11-year delay. It was however reduced by seven years “for the unconscionable further delay by the crown”.
“A period of not more than two years I would consider to have been reasonable to bring him to trial after his return to the jurisdiction” the judge said.
Weekes was sentenced to life in prison and must serve 28 years less the time already served in custody – which was rounded off at nine years. As a result, he must serve a further 19 years before he is eligible for a release from Dodds prison.
