15-YEAR GIFT

Crystal Towers murderer gets reduced sentence after guilty plea

PHILLIP BROWN, the man accused of stabbing his pregnant ex-girlfriend, who was also the mother of his child, to death at her Crystal Towers apartment in St Andrew last December, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Justice Martin Gayle made the announcement after considering the facts, which outlined a tumultuous relationship that led to a graphic end to the life of Kerry-Ann Wilson, who was pregnant with another man’s child at the time.

Brown will have to serve 10 years at hard labour before he is eligible for parole.

Defence attorneys Anthony Williams and Leone Hines-Smith begged for mercy, noting that the crime was one of irrational passion, but Gayle remained stoic as the plea was belaboured.

“I would say it is a case of self-control – the need to exercise self-control no matter how our emotions gallop and may lead us into violent acts. We must express self-control,” said Gayle.

“In a relationship, both persons are imperfect and each one has their own choices and likes. She said it is over; that’s it. Move on. I don’t think you did it for the love,” he said. “If you love someone, you must protect them and hope that if she will come back, she will. But she can’t come back to you now.”

Gayle rued that the child would be left without a mother, and, for the most part, a father, but was particularly disgusted at the revelation that Brown had had sexual intercourse with Wilson before killing her.

The court was told that the couple had recently separated and that Brown was trying to rekindle the relationship. When Wilson went to sleep, he hit her in the head with a sledgehammer.