Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter

One of the two men convicted of the murder of former president of the Jamaica Gasolene Retailers Association (JGRA), 62-year-old Lloyd G. Brown, and his 49-year-old fiancée, Sandra Campbell, was yesterday sentenced to hang.

The other man was sentenced to life imprisonment and is to serve 40 years before he is eligible for parole.

Justice Norma McIntosh, in passing the death sentence on 39-year-old Peter Dougal, construction worker and farmer of Santoy district, Hanover, described him as sheer evil and cold-blooded. She said Dougal showed no remorse for what he had done.

escaped the death penalty

Donald Whyte, 40, labourer, of Love Lane, Kingston, escaped the death penalty because the judge said it was not clear from the evidence what role he played in the double murder. She said, however, that she had to give him a long stretch in prison.

The judge said tha Whyte started working from he was 12 years old, the social enquiry report disclosed that he got involved in bad company. She said he was old enough to chose between good and evil, but he chose evil.

Brown and Campell were shot dead at Campbell's Stillwell Road residence in Stony Hill, St. Andrew, about 4:00 a.m. on June 6, 2004.

Campbell's household helper Sandra Watt was charged jointly with the two men, but the jury failed to arrive at a verdict and a retrial was ordered for her. She appeared in court yesterday and her trial has been set for December 3.

mash a work

The judge referred to the evidence in which Douglas had told a witness that he was going to "mash a work". The police had theorised that it was a contract killing.

Evidence was given that within hours of the double murder the police went to Vineyard Townwhere Dougal and a group of men engaged the police in a shoot-out. During the incident, Dougal was shot and the murder weapon taken from him. He was found in possession of Brown's photograph.

Dougal's lawyer Dr. Randolph Williams had asked the judge not to impose the death penalty because that would cheapen life.

Attorney-at-law Ian Wilkinson, who represented Whyte, told the court and family members of the deceased who were in court that Whyte sincerely regretted the senseless murder of the victims. Mr. Wilkinson asked the judge not to impose the death penalty on Whyte.

barbara.gayle@gleanerjm.com