KLANSMAN gang leader Tesha Miller was yesterday convicted and sentenced to 15 years in prison in what Police Commissioner Owen Ellington described as a victory for law and order.

The decision in Miller’s case was handed down at about the same time that the police scored another big win in its fight against crime with the recapture of Nicholas Nesbeth, also known as ‘Fire Key’, in Craig Town, Kingston.

Police said that Nesbeth was captured along with two other men — one of whom has been identified as wanted for a number of murders in the Kingston Western Division. The other man captured is Ricardo Jones, the brother of Christopher Linton, also known as ‘Dog Paw’.

Nesbeth, described as the brain behind the Dog Paw gang, was mistakenly released by the police in February after an administrative blunder.

Yesterday, Miller — who headed the Spanish Town-based Klansman gang which is allied to the Opposition People’s National Party and which has, on numerous occasions, engaged the police in fierce gun battles — was sentenced to 22 years behind bars in the High Court Division of the Gun Court, shortly after his conviction.

The convict was sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment for illegal possession of a firearm and 15 years for robbery with aggravation, but will only spend 15 years behind bars as the sentences are to run concurrently.

Miller’s attorney Bert Samuels has said that he will be appealing the sentence and conviction. Miller’s trial, which started last month, was conducted amid heavy police presence at the Supreme Court building in downtown Kingston.

Hours after Miller’s conviction and sentence, Commissioner Ellington issued a release hailing the decision as a “victory for law and order over criminal forces, who have plagued especially St Catherine over the years”.

“I want to offer my gratitude and thanks to the men and women of the St Catherine North Division and the other formations who worked diligently, thoroughly and with great perseverance in preparing a case file on Miller which met the highest professional standards and which ultimately led to the convictions today of this noted gang leader,” said Ellington.

Miller was arrested in December last year in connection with a stolen motor vehicle. His arrest sparked a demonstration by residents in the hotbed community of De La Vega City in Spanish Town. The demonstrators complained that Miller had been unfairly targeted by the cops.

In October last year, Miller was detained and interrogated by Criminal Investigation Branch detectives about crimes committed in the old capital.

Since his arrest in December the Klansman gang has been split by bloody infighting for the leadership of the criminal network, which saw over a dozen persons being killed in areas known to be the stomping ground of the gang.

In September last year, Miller was denied entry to The Bahamas by immigration authorities there. He was detained overnight and sent back to Jamaica the following day.

In June 2009, Miller, also called ‘Rat’, was acquitted of the murder of John Haughton in the Home Circuit Court because of insufficient evidence. Haughton was shot on St John’s Road in Spanish Town in April 2004.

Months before the June 2009 acquittal, Miller was also set free of the triple murders of Oraine Jackson, Jeffery Johnson and Nicole Allen in Braeton, St Catherine in January 2005. He had absconded bail on the murder charges and fled to the United States in that same year. But he was held by the US authorities in October 2006 and charged with re-entering that country illegally. He had been previously deported from that country.

A .45 pistol, an SKS assault rifle, one pound of marijuana and a large scale — which the US agents said was commonly used to distribute narcotics — were allegedly found in an apartment Miller occupied in Tampa, Florida.

Yesterday, the Police High Command raised the threat level against the constabulary to extreme and reminded cops to take steps necessary to protect themselves, their families and government properties and remain alert at all times.

Extreme means that violent attacks against members of the security forces are imminent.

The caution was issued in light of Miller’s conviction and sentence and the killing by the police on Thursday afternoon of Klansman member Amal ‘Satan’ Roman.

Roman, who was regularly listed as a major person of interest for several murders and shooting incidents, was killed in a shootout with cops in Kent Village, St Catherine.