Granddad to be sentenced for disposing of granddaughter’s body

The 80-year-old grandfather who was convicted of unlawfully disposing of the body of his granddaughter, Rasheeda Bascombe, is to be sentenced next week.

Last November, a nine-member jury unanimously found Winfield Nurse, of Bush Hall, St Michael, guilty of disposing of the body of the 12-year-old sometime between 2002 and 2013.

When he reappeared before Justice Donna Babb-Agard  in the No. 4A Supreme Court on Wednesday, Nurse was informed that she would deliver her ruling on March 10.

During her submissions, Principal State Counsel Olivia Davis, who prosecuted the matter with State Counsel Tito Holder, submitted that Nurse should receive a 10-year starting point for the offence, increased by one year due to aggravating factors. Meanwhile, Nurse’s attorney Lennox Miller submitted a seven-year starting point and argued that his client should be sentenced to time served.

During the trial, police testified that Nurse had stated that months after Bascombe did not return home, she contacted him requesting $1 000 and, in a written statement, said they met and went through a track in Jackson.

The account outlined that she pulled out a knife, telling him the $300 he gave her was not enough, and they scuffled, falling on the ground. When Nurse got up, he saw the knife in her belly and left, returning two days later to roll the body over a small cliff.

In her statement, Hermena Straker, Bascombe’s mother, who is now deceased, told police that her father had confessed to her about the scuffle and that Rasheeda “had gotten juck in her belly with a knife and hit her head” and that he had left the body in Jackson.

Nurse opted to say nothing in his defence after the prosecution closed its case and called no witnesses.