A prime suspect has been held in the September 2023 murders of parliamentarian Phillip Paulwell’s 10-month-old daughter Sarayah and her mother, Toshyna Patterson, the police have confirmed.

The suspect brings to six the number of people who have been nabbed in connection to the crime that shocked the country.

A reliable police source told the
Jamaica Observer on Thursday that the male suspect was arrested on Lady Musgrave Road in St Andrew on Wednesday evening.

The source said the suspect will be subject to an identification parade shortly.

This development follows Wednesday’s update provided by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) that a fifth person, Bjon Black, has also been charged in the kidnapping and murder plot.

According to the ODPP, Black appeared in the Home Circuit Court on January 17, 2024 before Justice Dale Palmer, on a voluntary bill of indictment proffered by the ODPP outlining eight charges:

• Conspiracy to kidnap Toshyna Patterson on diverse days between the 6th and 9th day of September 2023.

• Conspiracy to kidnap Sarayah Paulwell on diverse days between the 6th and 9th day of September 2023.

• Conspiracy to murder Toshyna Patterson on diverse days between the 6th and 9th day of September 2023.

• Conspiracy to murder Sarayah Paulwell on diverse days between the 6th and 9th day of September 2023.

• Kidnapping of Toshyna Patterson on the 9th day of September 2023.

• Kidnapping of Sarayah Paulwell on the 9th day of September 2023.

• Murder of Toshyna Patterson on the 9th day of September 2023.

• Murder of Sarayah Paulwell on the 9th day of September 2023.

Black, the ODPP said, will be eventually joined on an indictment with the case of Rex v Leoda Bradshaw and Roland Balfour.

Patterson and her 10-month-old daughter were kidnapped and murdered on September 9, 2023.

Leoda Bradshaw, who shares a child with Paulwell and who is a culinary specialist in the United States Navy; Richard Brown; Roshane Miller; and Roland Balfour were subsequently arrested and charged with the kidnapping and murders.

On November 15, 2023 Brown pleaded guilty to two counts of kidnapping and murder and was sentenced to 30 years’ imprisonment.

Miller, meanwhile, pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to kidnap as well as two counts of accessory before the fact to murder, and was sentenced to seven years and 10 months’ imprisonment.

Bradshaw, who is also charged with two counts of capital murder and two counts of conspiracy to kidnap, and Balfour, who has been charged with two counts of accessory before the fact to kidnapping and two counts of accessory before the fact to murder, are both due back before the Home Circuit Court in March 2024.