MIAMI, Florida (AP) — A British millionaire killed a business rival’s son to silence him as a witness in the shooting death of his father, a prosecutor said yesterday in asking for the death penalty in the double-slaying.

Defence attorneys for Krishna Maharaj were to argue later in the day for 25 years to life in prison, the only alternative sentence available for slaying Duane Moo Young, 23, moments after killing the father at a Miami hotel penthouse in 1986.

Maharaj, 63, already is serving 25 years to life for killing the father, Derrick Moo Young, an importer who brought his family from Jamaica to South Florida.

The state Supreme Court upheld convictions in both murders but erased the death sentence imposed for the son’s killing and ordered a new jury to consider a sentence. Deliberations began late in the day. Jurors sent a note to the judge saying they planned to adjourn at 2230 GMT.

“This was a murder by appointment. There had been much planning,” said prosecutor Sally Weintraub. The son’s killing “was for just one purpose: kill a witness. He’d seen what happened”.

A trial witness, Neville Butler, testified that he lured the Moo Youngs to the penthouse for a supposed business meeting, and Maharaj held a gun on the men from the time they entered the suite. The defence conceded Maharaj and the Moo Youngs were feuding over money.

Butler testified that Maharaj was “berserk”, ranting about money, and shot Derrick Moo Young when he lunged for the handgun. Duane Moo Young was forced to kneel and was shot in the head.

The defence implied that Butler was, at the least, a self-dealing accomplice who avoided prosecution by lying about what happened as he testified against Maharaj.

“This began as a legitimate dispute over finances that went awry. Blood boiled. Passions stirred,” defence attorney Ben Kuehne said as he argued against the prosecution’s depiction of a cold, calculated murder plot.

Maharaj, who grew rich in London as an importer and once owned Britain’s second-largest string of racehorses and 24 Rolls Royces, has always maintained he didn’t kill either man.

But Circuit Judge Jerald Bagley told the jury to take the murder conviction as a given and did not allow the defence to argue innocence.

During four days of testimony, Maharaj’s expression was mostly dour, broken by a weak smile during a brother’s testimony about growing up in their native Trinidad.

A British horse trainer, a member of Parliament and a former US congressman testified for Maharaj on his request for leniency.

Siblings of Duane Moo Young testified about his religious devotion and his unstinting support of their career choices and marriages.

Maharaj claims in a separate federal appeal that he was 40 miles (64 kilometres) away during the killings.