Farmer who murdered man for failing to return contract killing money loses appeal

A St Elizabeth man who murdered another for refusing to return $100,000 for a contract killing that was not done has lost his appeal against his 15-year prison term.

Sanjay Splatt, 33, a farmer of Ginger Ground district in Malvern, pleaded guilty in the St Elizabeth Circuit Court in March 2018 to the murder of 31-year-old Everton Mullings.

He was sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment but Justice Martin Gayle reduced it by five years and ordered that Splatt serve 15 years before he would be eligible for parole.

Splatt appealed on the grounds that, based on the facts presented, the sentence was harsh and excessive.

He said the judge did not temper justice with mercy as his guilty plea was not taken into consideration.

Attorney-at-law Hugh Wilson, who represented Splatt, had asked that the sentence be reduced to 10 years.

Prosecutors Orrett Brown and Renelle Morgan had argued that the sentence was not excessive.

The Court of Appeal ruled last week that the sentence was not excessive.

The facts of the case were that in 2015, Splatt contracted Mullings for a price of $100,000 to kill an individual.

He paid the money but Mullings did not carry out the plan and stopped answering Splatt's phone calls.

Splatt became upset that the job was not done and subsequently told the deceased he had some ganja for him at a hut.

When Mullings turned up on October  21, 2015, Splatt pointed a gun at him, tied him up in bushes and instructed him to call his family members to bring the $100,000 or he would kill him.

The relatives did not comply and on the fifth day when Mullings tried to escape, Splatt shot him dead.

Splatt transported the body to a dump site near the Buena Vista Housing Scheme in St Elizabeth and set it on fire.

Residents found the body on October 27, 2015, and called the police.

Splatt was also charged with kidnapping but the prosecution did not pursue the offence after he pleaded guilty to murder.

A man called 'Rasta' had accompanied Mullings to the hut but when he saw Splatt pointing a gun at the deceased, he ran away.