WICKED

Men Convicted Of Good Samaritans’ Murders
Published: Thursday | June 21, 2012 12 Comments
Barbara Gayle, Justice Coordinator

A jury deliberated for five hours yesterday and convicted the two men who were charged with the murder of a couple dubbed the ‘Good Samaritans’.

The relatives of the deceased, who attended court daily, wept openly when they heard the verdict.

Convicted of the double murder are labourers 24-year-old André Ennis of Havendale, St Andrew, and 24-year-old Passmore Millings, also called Shane Brown, of Gregory Park, St Catherine.

Supreme Court judge Lloyd Hibbert, who presided at the trial in the Home Circuit Court, will sentence them on July 20.

The couple – 23-year-old human-resource officer Jhanel Whyte and her boyfriend 24-year-old student Taiwo McKenzie – were tied up and gagged after they went to Havendale to give medical supplies to an injured man on November 7, 2007.

They were later taken to bushes in Mount Salus, near Smokey Vale, St Andrew, where their throats were slashed. The bodies were discovered on November 9, 2007.

The Crown, represented by Director of Public Prosecutions Paula Llewellyn and prosecutors Claudette Thompson and Kerri Ann Kemble, led evidence that on November 6, 2007, McKenzie’s motor car collided with a motorcycle on which Ennis and George Cooper were travelling.

KIDNAPPED

Cooper’s ankle was injured and the next day when the couple took medical supplies to Cooper in Havendale, they were kidnapped.

Cooper, who is now serving an eight-year prison sentence for conspiracy to kidnap and conspiracy to rob the couple, was the main witness for the prosecution. He pleaded guilty last year to the charges.

Cooper said after the accident, the police said the motorcycle was not registered and McKenzie said he was not going to pay for the repairs.

Cooper said when the couple came to give him the medical supplies, Ennis took the key from McKenzie’s motor car and, along with Millings and another man, tied the couple’s hands and gagged them.

He said Ennis drove McKenzie’s motor car up to the hill. Ennis and Millings took the couple into the bushes and later returned with a knife which had blood on it. He said the men also had blood on their hands.

Ennis, who is the brother of well-known entertainer Elephant Man, and Millings gave unsworn statements denying they murdered the couple.

Attorney-at-law C.J. Mitchell is representing Ennis, while attorneys-at-law Tom Tavares-Finson and Christian Tavares-Finson are representing Millings.