Convict fails in bid to reduce 28-year sentence for killing woman

Nov 07, 2019 News

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Dennis Wharton experienced great disappointment yesterday when the Court of Appeal refused to reduce his 28-year prison term.

The custodial sentence was imposed on Wharton in 2013 by Justice Roxane George, as she then was. Wharton had appeared before Justice George in 2013 and pleaded guilty to the November 2006, killing of 42-year-old June Osbourne, who he claimed to have been in a relationship with. The bloated and partially decomposed body of the woman was found in a drain aback of her East La Penitence Squatting Area home.
Wharton, however, opted to plead guilty to the lesser count of manslaughter. He was initially sentenced to 40 years’ imprisonment. Justice George, however, made certain deductions for his early guilty plea. She also discounted the time he spent on remand; hence his sentence was reduced to 28 years. But Wharton filed an appeal arguing that the sentence was excessive in all the circumstances of the case. The Court of Appeal comprising Chancellor of the Judiciary Yonette Cummings-Edwards unanimously dismissed the appeal.
In her arguments, Amora Giddings, Wharton’s lawyer, advanced that Justice George failed to consider mitigating factors on her client’s behalf. While Giddings cited no case laws to substantiate her case, she asked the Court of Appeal to consider additional mitigating factors. For one, she told the court that at the time of incarceration her client was gainfully employed and an active church-goer. She said that during her client’s childhood certain moral values were instilled in him.
Added to that, Giddings said that Wharton has been described as a well behaved prisoner. She further asked the Court of Appeal to consider reducing the sentence as Wharton will be of a good contribution towards the development of the society. The lawyer said that since his incarceration, Wharton has been unable to see his mother who is confined to a wheelchair as the elderly woman experiences difficulty with travelling. Howeve

r, State Counsel Natasha Backer argued that there was nothing to justify Wharton’s request.
Backer reminded the court that at the time of sentencing, Justice George took all the relevant mitigating and aggravating factors into consideration. The Chancellor agreed with Backer’s contention that there was nothing before the court to substantiate Wharton’s request for a reduction of his sentence. In fact, the Chancellor referenced two case laws that were submitted by the State Counsel.
In relaying on one of them, Chancellor Cummings-Edwards said that the Court of Appeal cannot now seek to impose a sentence it thinks is appropriate; that is at the discretion of the trial judge. After perusing the record of appeal, the Court of Appeal was satisfied that Justice George took all the relevant factors into consideration which included the prevalence of the offence and a favourable probation report on Wharton. Chancellor Cummings-Edwards sought to highlight certain aspects of the report.
According to her, the Probation Officer, in concluding remarks noted that if everyone is allowed to take the law into their own hands, society wound denigrate into anarchy. Apart from this, the killing was described as a “gruesome unwarranted attack on a woman” by the probation officer. The Chancellor highlighted that Osbourne’s left hand was severed at the wrist and that she sustained several incised wounds; some to her face, head and neck.
Based on previous report, Wharton had told a probation officer that he and the woman were involved in a relationship. He had explained to the probation officer that his friends informed him that the woman was being unfaithful and he went home to confront her about the allegations and she became angry and picked up a cutlass.
Wharton is reported to have told the Probation Officer that he took away the weapon from the woman and chopped her while she lay on the floor even though she begged for mercy as she was angry. The probation report revealed that persons in the community were uncertain whether the two shared a relationship. Some described Wharton as a ‘junkie’. While in court two of the woman’s relatives said they were unaware that Wharton and Osbourne shared a relationship.
However, Wharton’s claims to being involved with the woman were disputed by State Prosecutors who said that Wharton told police a different story. According to the prosecutor, Wharton told the police that he and another man had visited the woman’s home as they did odd jobs for her.
While there, Wharton said the woman came out with cutlass and asked them what they were doing there. Wharton, the prosecutors said, further told the police that his accomplice told the woman that she would see what they were doing there. The prosecutors said that Wharton told the police that the woman chopped his accomplice in the face.
The man, he said, chopped her, causing her to fall to the ground after which he collected the cutlass and chopped her too. The Prosecutors said that Wharton admitted that they then dragged the woman’s body to the back of the yard. Her body was discovered hidden under a zinc sheet by her daughter. Reports indicate that Osbourne’s home was also ransacked.

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