THE man convicted for the 2017 murder of restaurant worker Shanquille Williams, 23, who was lured by a female only to end up being robbed and shot, is to be sentenced this month-end.

The convict, Nicardo Spencer, who was tried before Supreme Court Judge Justice Georgina Fraser between June 1 and July 5 this year, was nailed by evidence in a statement given by the same female, who, incidentally, was his then girlfriend, as well as video evidence and call data records.

According to information unveiled before the court, Williams on July 1, 2017 left his place of employment — Sonia’s Homestyle Cooking Restaurant — to meet with the young woman whom he had met the day before at his workplace.

During that “meeting”, which took place on Dumbarton Avenue in the Corporate Area, Williams was attacked by an unidentified man who exited a motor car and ordered him to kneel, robbed him of his cellular phone and knapsack, and shot him four times in the head.

A lead in another criminal investigation resulted in the police apprehending Spencer in mid-October 2017.

The trial saw 11 witnesses being called by the prosecution, inclusive of a statement given by Spencer’s girlfriend, who was a minor at the time of the incident, implicating him as the driver of the motor car.

According to the girl, she had been taken to Williams’ workplace by Spencer the day before the killing. While there, she said she got the number of the deceased and began exchanging text messages and phone calls, leading to a plan to meet the following day.

She said on the fateful day in question, she was let out of the car and she walked to meet Williams.

At that point, she said the motor car pulled up and an unidentified man exited with a gun, taking Williams by surprise. According to the witness, she “was ordered inside the waiting vehicle by him, where she saw the man shoot and kill the deceased”. She said, while inside the car, her boyfriend told her that he should not have brought her. She claimed she indicated that she did not know that they were going to kill Williams.

Technical evidence led from members of the Communication Forensics and Cybercrimes Division of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), who had extracted CCTV footage from Williams’ workplace the day before the murder and two business places on Dumbarton Avenue on the day of the murder, supported the eyewitness’ evidence.

One video showed the young girl arriving in a silver motor car with a sunroof. It further showed Williams at work conversing with her and the exchange of his phone number, which he had written on a piece of paper. The other footage showed Williams meeting her as well as the moment the same silver motor car with a sunroof drove up. It further showed the unidentified passenger exiting the car, accosting Williams, and shooting him. Cell-site data and call data records also placed the young woman and Spencer in the vicinity of Dumbarton Road at approximately the same time that the video footage had captured the shooting. Furthermore, call data records established that there had been communication between the young woman and Spencer right up to the time the video captured her meeting Williams.

Spencer is set to be sentenced on July 29, 2021 in the Home Circuit Court.