MAY PEN, Clarendon — Verona Samuels and Natalie Sill, the two jurors who on December 10 pleaded guilty to collecting $60,000 from the mother of a murder accused to render a favourable verdict were both sentenced to 18 months imprisonment yesterday when they appeared before the May Pen Resident Magistrate’s Court.

Samuels, 23, and Sill, 44, were expected to be sentenced on Tuesday, but were instead told by RM Dale Palmer, who presided over the case, that they had to wait another day, as Sill’s lawyer, Hopeton Clarke, was ill and could not make it to Court.

Yesterday, however, Clarke turned up in Court and along with Samuels’ lawyer, Garfield Haisley, made passionate pleas for their clients to be given suspended sentences.

They based their arguments on the fact that both women were first-time offenders, had pleaded guilty at the first available date and did not waste the court’s time with a trial, were single mothers and had no one to care for their children, and had good social enquiry reports.

But their most important point was that both Samuels and Sill might have been approached by the mother of the accused murderer who sought to take advantage of the women’s vulnerability.

However, RM Palmer, in handing down his verdict, contended that whether or not both women were approached, the fact that they went out of their way to collect the money meant they were trying to pervert the course of justice.

As such, he believes that a clear message must be sent to all those who try to further smear the integrity of the justice system.

On Tuesday, Samuels and Sill seemed the least bit concerned that they were going to prison as they sat outside the court building laughing with a few family members. However, yesterday, they were in a more pensive mood.

Samuels, who is a mother of three young boys — ages eight, five and two — even broke down in tears while she sat inside the courtroom awaiting her verdict.

Sill, on the other hand, who is said to have a 12-year-old daughter, appeared as if she was anticipating a favourable verdict.

It was not immediately clear whether both women — who are to face the Clarendon Circuit Court on March 15 for contempt of court, stemming from the same incident — will be filing an appeal.

Samuels and Sill were held in the bathroom of an eatery in May Pen on November 16, moments after collecting $60,000 from the mother of Rohan Johnson to influence fellow jurors to render a favourable verdict in Johnson’s murder trial before Justice Bryan Sykes in the Clarendon Circuit Court.

Police say that Johnson, also called ‘Blazer’, heads the King Street gang which is based in Lionel Town, also in Clarendon. He was arrested and charged with the gun murder of ex-policeman Aston Ferguson.