Man gets life sentence for deadly bar shooting

At 18 years old, Shane Wesley Dawson ran up to a bar in Eagle Hall, St Michael and fired several shots, one of which struck Rondell Alexander in the head, killing him.

Dawson will now spend 34 years behind bars before being considered for release after Justice Carlisle Greaves sentenced him to life imprisonment with a tariff of 34 years for the December 13, 2019 killing.

“This is a case in which the defendant showed a real callous disregard for other members of the public. He discharged a firearm in the public domain, in the area of a restaurant and nightclub, situated in one of the most densely populated areas in the nation where there were several patrons, causing people to scramble to avoid serious injury,” the judge stated.

Justice Greaves said the appropriate sentence was one of life in prison.

“In this case, there was clear evidence that this was a premeditated killing. The now-convicted man was on a course of vengeance and acted under the instruction of others. The inference that can be drawn in this case is that this is a gang case, a tit-for-tat in which a soldier carries out instructions of the general. These are dangerous types of cases and once they get a hold of society, it is extremely difficult to eradicate them.

“A strong message, therefore, to persons who would act in the manner in which the now-convicted man acted in this case, is that when they face these courts, they must expect a substantial sentence,” the judge stressed.

Four days after his trial commenced in June in the No. 3 Supreme Court, Dawson, a resident of 5th Avenue Peterkin, Bank Hall, St Michael, admitted to the deadly shooting before a 12-member jury which was ordered to return a formal guilty verdict.

Principal State Counsel Neville Watson prosecuted the matter, while Senior Counsel Angella Mitchell-Gittens represented Dawson.

Asked whether he had anything to say before the sentence was imposed, Dawson replied, “No, Sir”.

Determining that life imprisonment with a tariff of 40 was an appropriate sentence, the judge made deductions for his previously clean record, his guilty plea even though it came after the start of trial, and the 1 559 days he had spent on remand.

During the trial, persons heard that Alexander was liming with other people in front of a bar at Gills Road, Eagle Hall in an area called Platinum Block, when Dawson ran up and fired several shots.