MOM OF MURDER VICTIM SAYS 15-YEAR SENTENCE NOT ENOUGH
Mother of woman killed by partner in 2018 says 15-year sentence not enough
BLACK RIVER, St Elizabeth — Avis Rowe was overcome by grief in 2018.
Understandably so, as in March that year, her 39-year-old daughter, Jermain Lennon, was murdered by a jealous partner in Accompong, the Maroon community in the Cockpit Country, northern St Elizabeth.
Rowe was again grieving last Tuesday. This time, because she felt that the man who pleaded guilty to killing her daughter got away with a light prison sentence.
Her daughter’s killer, 47-year-old Steve Green, otherwise called Bamboo, was sentenced in the St Elizabeth Circuit Court to 15 years’ imprisonment. Green, a mason, is eligible for parole after 10 years.
Green is said to have attempted to commit suicide by drinking poison after killing Lennon.
Shortly after Green’s sentencing Rowe recounted the events of March 23, 2018, when she spoke with the Jamaica Observer.
“I don’t think we get justice. I think he should get more time [in prison]… The way him do it, for no reason... I don’t think him get justice... I expected him to get life imprisonment and nothing less,” the mother said.
“He killed my daughter. He burnt her. He burnt everything she had. He burnt her house. He burnt her entire life out. He burnt everything. She is my first child and there is no time I will forget her. I will never forget that girl. I cannot forget her. I walked from Accompong to Elderslie [three miles away] the day I gave birth to that child,” the distraught mother said.
Green pleaded guilty on December 10.
High Court judge Justice Evan Brown, in handing down the sentence, said the incident was “a most unfortunate case of murder and attempted suicide”.
Residents of Accompong reported seeing smoke coming from Lennon’s house. Her partially burnt body was later found under a mattress.
Green, who had reportedly ingested a corrosive substance, was found unconscious outside the house.