LENNOX Swaby and Calvin Powell — the two men convicted for the 2006 murder of Mandeville couple Richard and Julia Lyn — were yesterday sentenced to death in the Home Circuit Court.

Justice Marva McIntosh in passing sentence knocked the men for their lack of remorse, and said that they were beyond any possibility of reform, based on the reports at yesterday’s hearing and the evidence during trial.

Justice McIntosh lamented the fact that the men had maintained their innocence throughout, “even in the face of all the evidence elicited”.

The judge said the case was “extreme and exceptional”, noting that the Lyns died a slow, torturous death.

“…The sentence of this court is death in the manner prescribed by law,” said Justice McIntosh after outlining the circumstances that led her to refuse the defence’s request not to impose the death penalty.

Unruffled by the sentence, the men display the same nonchalant demeanour they did throughout the trial and subsequent conviction on December 19 last year.

Defence lawyers Dr Randolph Williams and Robert Armstrong said appeals would be filed against the conviction and sentence.

The men, the court heard yesterday, had previously told the superintendent in charge of the Horizon Adult Correctional Facility in Kingston that they were confident of an acquittal.

Superintendent Hector Smith, who testified at the sentence hearing, stopped short of calling Swaby, 28, and Powell, 27, model inmates.

The Lyns — 75-year-old Richard and Julia, 71, — were strangled to death at their home in Mandeville, Manchester between December 9 and 10, 2006, and their bodies dumped at the Martin’s Hill dump in the parish.

The bodies were discovered by the police on December 29, 2006 after Powell led investigators to the site, following his arrest on December 16.

The couple’s two motor vehicles, as well as furniture, appliances and other items were stolen from the home. A few of the stolen items were found at the homes of the two killers.

Yesterday, Councillor Sally Porteous, the Jamaica Labour Party caretaker for the Central Manchester Constituency, who was on hand for the sentencing, said that it was her hope that the men would be hanged.

“I had to be here to hear the sentence of the most vile creatures, who murdered two of the best people in Jamaica,” Porteous told the Observer.

“I’m happy to say that justice has been done and I hope that this time the death penalty will be executed because good Jamaicans can’t take anymore,” added Porteous.

And a long-time friend of the Lyns, who asked that his name not be used, said: “I’m very happy and satisfied with the sentence. It was worth the drive to come to Kingston.”

The case was prosecuted by senior Deputy Director of Public Prosecution Lisa Palmer-Hamilton.