CORPORAL Leslie Moodie, the former Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) soldier convicted of murdering four patrons at a Kingston nightclub, was yesterday sentenced to hang by Justice Horace Marsh who said that the ex-army man was beyond being reformed and rehabilitated.
The sentence was immediately hailed by relatives of the victims, who said that justice had been served. But the occasion was also one of mixed emotions, as relatives wept openly, the pain of their tragic loss still an open wound in their lives.
The emotional mother of 28-year-old victim William Wilberforce could be overheard in court saying, “Thank you, Jesus”, as Justice Marsh pronounced the sentence for the October 20, 2008 murders inside the Double Diamond nightclub along Washington Boulevard in Kingston.
But in stark contrast, the 33-year-old Moodie — as was his usual demeanour throughout the proceedings — sat quietly while the sentence was being read.
Moments after, Wilberforce’s mother rushed outside the courtroom where she wept aloud. “Him kick mi son and shot him up,” the woman cried while being consoled by a relative.
In handing down the sentence, Justice Marsh said the only punishment that could be imposed was death. He said the mitigating factors did not outweigh the extreme and exceptional circumstances of the murders.
“Punishment cannot be reached by any other means,” said Justice Marsh. “In this case, the sentence of death should be imposed.”
Moodie’s legal team of Pierre Rogers and Michael Deans had spent most of Wednesday trying to convince the court to impose a sentence of life imprisonment. On the other hand, the Crown was just as strident in arguing for the death penalty.
The convict is expected to appeal the sentence.
The soldier was earlier convicted for the Heroes Day murders of Wilberforce, 19-year-old Dijan Powell, 28, Davion Carr, 19, and Lynchmore Forbes.
Eyewitnesses testified that Moodie was inside the club acting in an obnoxious manner and harassing women during a birthday party. He went berserk after he was challenged about his behaviour and pulled his licensed 9mm pistol and began firing.
When the shooting ended, a witness testified during the trial, Moodie began waving his weapon menacingly, while asking, “Who next? Who next?”
The victims were shot multiple times. Wilberforce was shot nine times, as Moodie emptied two magazine clips during the process. Evidence was also given that Moodie used his foot to flip over the mortally wounded Wilberforce while he lay sprawled on the ground, and exclaimed, “From night you a gwaan like you bad, tonight you ago dead!” He again fired repeatedly into Wilberforce’s body.
A friend of Moodie’s, the court had been told, tried talking him out of his actions but he continued his mayhem. His attorneys had argued that Moodie fired in self-defence. Yesterday, as bits of the evidence was being outlined, Wilberforce’s mother cringed while bemoaning the incident.
Following the verdict, family members of some of the victims, who gathered in front the Supreme Court, said that Moodie deserved death for his actions. “He took lives, so they must take his,” Carr’s mother told the Observer.
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