Tahj Burrell

TWO men are to be sentenced today for the 1999 shooting deaths of the sons of Jamaica's ex-football boss, Captain Horace Burrell, and a former deputy chief of police, Noel Eldrige.

Carl McHargh, 32, a customs broker, and Ryan Rankine, could face the death penalty having been convicted yesterday for the premeditated murder of Tahj Burrell and Jason Eldrige.

McHardy was previously tried for murder in late 2002, but the court ordered that he be retried because of a hung jury. Rankine was arrested in April last year and charged as an accomplice in the crime.

Burrell. was in court to hear the verdict

Burrell, 19 at the time of the death, and Eldrige were shot dead in Northside Plaza in Liguanea on the night of July 25, 1999, shortly after Burrell had dropped his new girlfriend and her young baby at a restaurant at the mall.

Yesterday, the neatly-groomed McHardy, dressed in a grey suit and Rankine, wearing blue trousers and a floral shirt, stood impassively as a 12-member jury returned a unanimous verdict after seven hours of deliberations, witnesses said. They were handcuffed together.

The case was conducted under Gun Court rules, which bar the public.

Captain Burrell, who, until his defeat in November, served for nine years as president of the Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) and his ex-wife Lourea were in court to hear the guilty verdict against their son's killers.

"I am very happy that justice has prevailed," Captain Burrell said yesterday. "I am sure the entire family will feel somewhat relieved as this will help to bring about closure in this matter. We are saddened to have lost Tahj, but we are satisfied that justice has prevailed."

The prosecution, officials said, argued that the murder of Burrell and Eldrige was driven by McHargh's jealous obsession with a woman.

The woman, the prosecution contended, had dumped McHargh for Burrell with whom she had a child, and planned to marry.

The jealousy boiled over into murder one Sunday night when young Burrell, Eldrige, his girlfriend and her baby went to Northside Plaza for pizza.

A Nissan Sunny motorcar drove up in short order. Two men came out of the Sunny and fired on Burrell and Eldrige, killing them on the spot.

The men ran back to their car and sped away.
Police investigations disclosed that the car driven by the accused men was rented from a friend for $2,000. The friend handed over the car to the police.

Eyewitness identified the car as the one they saw leaving the scene on the night of the murder.
But McHargh and Rankine said that they were nowhere near the crime scene.

The trial lasted 12 days.

The jury retired at 11:00 am yesterday, and returned to court at 3:30 pm for Justice Basil Reid to clarify certain ambiguities. They finally returned at 6:30 pm with a unanimous verdict of guilty.

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