Judge orders ‘Coco’ to take academic and vocational classes while serving time at Dodds

Killer Trevor Linus Baptiste has been sentenced to 20 years at Her Majesty’s Prison for the 2015 death of 61-year-old Melanese Eversley.

However the convict, alias Coco, of Cutting Road, Haggatt Hall, St Michael, has 2,632 days left to serve of the sentence after a one-third deduction for his guilty plea and being credited for the 2,235 days he had already spent on remand at the St Philip penitentiary were granted.

As part of the sentence handed down by Justice Randall Worrell, the convicted killer must enroll in academic programmes as he is said to be in need of assistance in basic English and Mathematics. He must also take part in vocational programmes at the prison as well as the farming and baking course that he told the court he was interested in.

He was also ordered to make himself available for psychological assistance and assistance with coping skills as well as ethics and values as contained in the reports piled on him compiled in preparation for his sentencing. Baptiste, had pleaded not guilty to murder but guilty to manslaughter for the September 3, 2015 capital offence.

Eversley, a general worker, was walking to work along Jordan Tenantry Road, St George when she met her death. Her body was discovered by firefighters who responded to an anonymous call about a fire at Constant, St George. While on their way they spotted another fire which they attended to. It was there that they found Eversley’s lifeless body in a grassy area.

Her death, according to a post mortem, was as a result of a stab wound to her heart.

“I am sorry for the pain that I have caused the family of the deceased and also the law of this country and I would like the court to be as lenient as possible on me please,” Baptiste said at a recent sitting of the case before Justice Worrell.

In handing down his ruling today during a virtual sitting of the No. 2 Supreme Court, Justice Worrell stated that the aggravating features of the case far outweighed the mitigating factors.

He pointed to Baptiste’s age at the time – 41 – saying that it was not a mitigating feature as at that age he should know the difference between right and wrong.

The judge said the convicted killer was also at a high risk of re-offending but had shown remorse from the onset.

Baptiste was represented by defense counsel Angella Mitchell-Gittens who had submitted a starting sentence of 15 years in prison.

However, Director of Public Prosecutions, (DPP) Donna Babb-Agard Q.C. who prosecuted the case, submitted a starting sentence of 20 years in prison saying what was put forward by the defence was “too low”.