KEVIN ‘Richie Poo’ Tyndale, the reputed leader of the feared Papine-based Gideon Warriors gang, and his accomplice Brenton Fletcher, were both sentenced to life imprisonment in the Home Circuit Court yesterday.

They were found guilty of the August 2003 murder of Jervis Lobban in Mudd Town, Kingston. Tyndale, 30, will become eligible for parole after serving 35 years of his sentence, while Fletcher, 36, becomes eligible after serving 20 years.

Tyndale, dressed in a black shirt with white streaks and dark brown pants, and Fletcher, dressed in a black shirt and black pants, with beard and moustache unkempt, both maintained calm demeanours after hearing the sentence handed to them by Justice Horace Marsh.

They were immediately taken from the courtroom by police officers.

Attorney C J Mitchell, who represented Tyndale, and Arthur Kitchen, who represented Fletcher, both put in lengthy plea mitigations on behalf of their clients in effort to secure lenient sentences.

Mitchell pleaded with Justice Marsh to impose a prison term that did not exceed the one which Tyndale was already serving. Tyndale has been serving a 90-year sentence for the 2003 robbery and shooting of an August Town, St Andrew businessman.

“We’re asking certainly, my lord, not to consider going beyond any term that has already been imposed. One cannot over-stress the severity of that sentence. We ask your lordship to revisit the severity of that sentence. What I intend to ask is that the term imposed today is of a lower level and does not go beyond that already imposed,” Mitchell said in his submission to the judge.

Mitchell also asked Justice Marsh to consider Tyndale’s five children of ‘tender ages’ when passing his sentence, as well as the impact that the lack of a father figure could have upon them.

Speaking on behalf of Fletcher, Kitchen submitted that his client was a product of the Mudd Town environment in which he lived.

“Mr Fletcher was also a captive of that battleground environment in which he had to live. You either tow the line or you are executed. If it weren’t for those circumstances Mr Fletcher would never have found himself within those circumstances which he is in today,” Kitchen told the court.

Kitchen also told the court that Fletcher’s role in the death of Lobban – fetching and disposing of the gun with which Tyndale used to carry out the murder – was an act of “self-preservation”.

“Fletcher was not the triggerman; he did not pull the trigger that ended the deceased’s life. His act was one of self-preservation, otherwise he too would have found himself in the deceased’s position,” said the defence lawyer.

Kitchen also asked that Justice Marsh take into consideration Fletcher’s nine children, as well as the fact that he played a role in the recovery of the prosecution witness who was with Lobban at the time of the attack. This witness, who received several gunshots, gave evidence in court implicating both Tyndale and Fletcher in Lobban’s murder.

According to Kitchen, Fletcher enquired about the witness after he had been shot, visited him while he was in hospital and assisted him in getting medication on one occasion. He also said that Fletcher apologised to the witness for his injuries during the course of the trial.

But Justice Marsh did not give in to the pleas from the lawyers.

“I would be living in an ivory tower if I failed to take into account the things that happened. The deceased was killed with the impunity with which one would kill a fly or a mosquito,” he said to Tyndale, before proceeding to hand down a life sentence.

For Fletcher, Justice Marsh asserted that in spite of his circumstances he played a far too significant role in Lobban’s death to be overlooked.

“Your attorney has asked me to accept that, because of Mudd Town, you did as you did. but you contributed to what happened,” he said, then handed down the sentence on Fletcher.

The prosecution’s team was led by Senior Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Paula Llewellyn, and her junior Icolyn Ramsay.

Tyndale, in the meantime, is expected to have more court appearances as, according to the police, he is a suspect in 19 major crimes, including the murder of 56-year-old Ena Grant, who was shot dead as she worshipped at the Bethel Born Again True Faith Apostolic Church of Jesus Christ in St Andrew in June 2004.

An eyewitness to the incident, too scared to be identified, told the Observer that Grant was killed as the pastor preached.

Tyndale, it is alleged, pulled the trigger twice, but his gun jammed. Grant subsequently tried to use her Bible to hit the weapon from his hand and almost succeeded. Determined, however, that Grant should die, Tyndale went outside, fixed his jammed weapon, then walked back into the church and pumped three shots into Grant’s body, killing her instantly.

With Tyndale becoming Jamaica’s most wanted man some time afterwards, on February 9, 2005 Operation Kingfish – the task force formed to deal specifically with gangsters and drug traffickers – offered a $100,000 bounty for information leading to his capture.

Days later, on February 12, 2005, he was captured in the rural district of John’s Hall, St James, during a pre-dawn joint military and police operation.

Police said Tyndale wet his pants and begged for his life after being cornered by cops.

– davisv@jamaicaobserver.com