COLLEAGUES of former police constable Mark Russell wept openly yesterday after he was sentenced to life in prison for assisting in the execution-style killing of a 17-year-old boy in 2007.

He will have to serve 24 years in prison before he is eligible for parole.

The 34-year-old ex-constable, who was assigned to the Hunts Bay Police Station in St Andrew, was sentenced by Justice David Fraser. The judge said that he (Russell) would not have been eligible for parole until after 30 years if he had not already spent six years in custody — one year in the United States, where he had fled, and the remaining years in Jamaica after he was extradited.

A distressed-looking Russell, who appeared to be on the verge of tears, bowed his head after the ruling, as if struggling with the sentence, while some of his former colleagues cried.

Two of Russell’s relatives, who had attended the sentencing, were too distraught to comment.

Russell was found guilty by majority verdict of 5-2 a week ago following a two-week trial in which prosecutor Jeremy Taylor, senior deputy director of public prosecutions, led evidence that he had assisted former colleague Morris Lee to shoot and kill Ravin Thompson.

The teenager was killed after he was initially shot during what was reported as an exchange of gunfire between a joint police/military team and gunmen on Alexander Road in Kingston.

The court heard that while Thompson was on his way to Kingston Public Hospital with one bullet wound to his chest, police, who were in the company of six soldiers, stopped along Darling Street and shot him dead.

Three soldiers testified that Russell took Lee’s gun and placed it in Thompson’s hand and discharged the weapon before Lee shot the teenager twice in his head and on his forearm.

Before the sentence was handed down yesterday, Rev George Williams of Rehoboth Gospel Assembly and Russell’s attorney, Michael Jordan, both pleaded for leniency on his behalf.

Rev Williams, who knew Russell for over 26 years, told the court that when he first heard about the case he told his wife that he did not believe that Russell killed the teenager as he knew the former cop as a kind, polite, quiet, hard-working and disciplined young man.

He then urged the judge to extend mercy to Russell as he was still young and has his whole life ahead of him.

Jordan, in addition to making a similar request, asked the judge to consider the number of years that Russell had already served in custody; that he had no previous trouble with the law and before the incident was an exemplary cop.

He also urged Justice Frazer to take into account that Russell was not the one who had killed the teenager and that he has been remorseful and deeply saddened for the pain that he has caused the youngster’s family.

“He is not somebody who is a seasoned killer, he is not somebody who is beyond rehabilitation. At the age of 34 he is still young, he has many years remaining to be a productive person in society. He is married, he has a wife. He does and always and continues to express remorse,” he said.

Justice Fraser, in passing the sentence, said while he has to balance his duty to society and his duty to Russell, he could not ignore the horrific nature of the allegations.

He also pointed out that he had to consider that police officers are entrusted to protect and serve the public, but that the verdict of the jury indicated their belief that Russell did the opposite of that.

The judge, however, said he took into consideration that Russell was not the shooter and that the social enquiry report spoke highly of him and echoed the sentiments of Rev Williams.