Prayers and incredulous questions tumbled from the lips of Gwendolyn McKnight in response to the news that her nephew, Rushane Barnett — who callously butchered her daughter and four grandchildren in Cocoa Piece, Clarendon, before dawn on June 21, 2022 — has mounted an appeal against his sentence, claiming that he deserves less time behind bars.

The victims — Kimesha Wright and her children Kimanda Smith, 15; Sharalee Smith, 12; Rafaella Smith, 5; and 23-month-old Kishawn Henry Jr — were discovered inside their house with chop wounds and their throats slashed.

Barnett pleaded guilty and was subsequently convicted of five counts of murder in relation to the killings. He was sentenced by Supreme Court judge Justice Leighton Pusey in October 2022 to five concurrent life sentences but is, in effect, only serving 61 years and eight months before being eligible for parole.

Barnett, who was 22 years old at the time of the offences, will not be eligible for parole before his 85th birthday.

Now Barnett — who the Jamaica Observer learnt filed the notice of appeal on his own without the benefit of any legal advice — is of the opinion that he should have benefited from discounts during the sentencing since he had pleaded guilty early in the process. The matter is foremost on the cause and hearing list of the Appeal Court, which officially reopens for the new court term this Monday.

The development was no comfort to his distraught aunt.

“Really? Him shoulda get 125 years and him only get 61 and him say him want less? Well, hallelujah Jesus, Father God, no sin nuh go unpunished, and him want it reduced? Him should get more than what he get for my five children weh him murder inna cold blood and him asking for appeal?” a perturbed McKnight ranted in an interview with the Observer on the weekend.

The grief-stricken mother, who is also now a widow, as her husband passed a month ago, said the fact that Barnett, who was treated well by her daughter, has never even apologised for his actions that fateful morning magnifies her pain.

“Well, if the judge have any pickney or grandpickney, I am going to see if the judge is going to let up on that wicked monster bwoy. That boy shoulda get 125 years and him only get 61, him shoulda heng up pon di gallows. Him shouldn’t have time now fi a appeal. Yuh know how everyday inside me a burn out for my daughter and mi grandpickney dem? I still sit down sometime and cry for them, and this bwoy siddung inna jail a nyam taxpayer money an a talk bout seh him waan appeal?” she said.

While acknowledging agonisingly that Barnett had rights as a prisoner, McKnight said his conscience alone should have dictated that he accept his fate.

“Good God, may God have mercy. Jesus, no, no, a wah kinda heart him really have? That little monster who shouldn’t be behind bars a eat taxpayer money. He should have gone on the gallows, him shoulda inna electric chair an den him a come ask fi appeal, ask fi appeal afta yuh kill five pickney,” she poured out further.

“Well, let us see, let us see, because if him shorten it [sentence] and feel seh him a go come back a road fi come do more act, him have a next Jesus coming, because I know God nah sleep,” McKnight said.

With her daughter and grandchildren viciously snatched from her, and her husband now dead after battling with heart disease, McKnight says she finds solace in her three sons and a handful of friends.

“The strength of God, a tell yuh seh the strength of God,” she said when asked how she coped with the losses.

Barnett, in attempting to explain his actions, claimed that Wright, who operated a shop at the premises where she lived, had disrespected him in the days before the murders. Barnett, who acted as a babysitter for his cousin’s children on multiple occasions, claimed that a customer had come to the premises and he served the costumer, but his cousin was upset and told him he was never to serve her customers, grabbed the cash from his hand and splashed water in his face. He said he was offended from that instant. A subsequent interaction with his cousin, he said, led to the stabbings.

He then fled to Wilson Run in Trelawny where he was apprehended. He was charged three days later based on a caution statement he gave to the police.

Justice Pusey, in his summation before handing down the sentences, had expressed “eternal hope” that Barnett’s name would be discarded to the dustbin of history and in the same breath urged that the names of Barnett’s victims be immortalised.

Justice Pusey, who said he “struggled for adjectives” to describe the “direct viciousness” of Barnett, declared, “What we need to remember in this matter are the persons who lost their lives, and I have deliberately been mentioning their names continuously. I have also been deliberate in not mentioning the name of the accused man because it is my eternal hope that we will forget his name, although it seems as if his name has [gone] wide and abroad.”

The judge, who said that the crimes fell under “the most serious category” recognised in law, told the court that in arriving at the sentence he took note of the report of a forensic psychiatrist who, after assessing Barnett, said he had no major mental illness but that he “displayed features which suggest that he has an antisocial personality disorder”.

According to the doctor, he found that Barnett understood the nature of the offence but was not acting under any abnormality of mind when he committed the offence. He said, although Barnett indicated that he heard voices, his examination of him did not uncover any signs of delusion in his history. He further said Barnett “appeared eager to deflect responsibility for the alleged offence to his cousin’s mother by claiming that she caused Obeah to be on him”.

Barnett did not benefit from a discount in his sentence because of his guilty plea, given the circumstances of the particular case, Justice Pusey said.

A forensic psychologist who examined Barnett revealed that he had a tendency to be superficial, referring to a habit of being “smooth and slick”. The expert also revealed that Barnett lacked openness, does not accept responsibility, is unreliable, displays adult antisocial behaviour, and lacks empathy.

Rushane Barnett, the Cocoa Piece mass murderer who was sentenced to five concurrent life sentences will not be eligible for parole before his 85th birthday.

Police investigators outside the house in Coco Piece, Clarendon where Kimesha Wright and her children Kimanda Smith, 15; Sharalee Smith, 12; Rafaella Smith, 5; and 23-month-old Kishawn Henry Jr — were found with chop wounds and their throats slashed on the morning of June 21, 2022. (Photo: Joseph Wellington)

A poster with photos of the Cocoa Piece massacre victims is mounted on the gate to the house where they were killed on June 21, 2022. At centre is the mother, 31-year-old Kimesha Wright. Clockwise from top right are 10-year-old Shara-Lee Smith, five-year-old Rafaella Smith, 23-month-old Kishawn Henry, and 15-year-old Kimanda Smith. The poster was a feature of the nine night for the victims on June 29, 2022. (Photo: Naphtali Junior)