Trevor Taffe, the 61-year-old former Coronation Market vendor who for 13 years denied that he was the one who beheaded the mother of his child in 2012 and discarded her body in a septic tank at his house, says he lied for more than a decade because “it was difficult” for him “to accept” that he had killed her.

Taffe had even gone to the extent of challenging his conviction for the murder of Nicole Heron and won a ruling from the Appeal Court for a retrial in 2022.

According to Taffe’s attorney, Leroy Equiano, the man who had originally been sentenced to life imprisonment and ordered to serve 20 years before eligibility for parole “broke down” and confessed during preparation for his retrial.

As a result, last December Taffe, appearing at a trial readiness hearing, made a surprising about-face, indicating that he wished instead to enter a guilty plea.

Consequently, Supreme Court judge Justice Leighton Pusey on Thursday sentenced Taffe to 17 more years in prison at hard labour when he appeared in the Home Circuit Division of the Supreme Court in downtown Kingston. The sentence means that he will spend 30 years overall behind bars for his crime.

Justice Leighton Pusey in handing down the new sentence made it clear that the court, in making its decision, had weighed not only that guilty plea but also the impact a new trial would have had on the family of Heron.

“I’ve had the opportunity of reading aspects of the transcript of the original trial, because when the defence came and indicated a willingness to plead guilty I did consider whether or not this was just ‘as this matter is taking too long I might as well plead guilty’; and when I read the statement from the dock by the accused in that matter, that’s when I indicated that the court could not properly sentence Mr Taffe unless he has made a full and complete indication of responsibility,” Justice Pusey said.

“I am aware of the facts, not just what I have seen from the file and the victim impact statement, of just how difficult this has been for the family of the deceased. And it is in light of that, that the court is willing to proceed in this particular way so that they would not have to go through that again,” Justice Pusey told the court.

“This is a very difficult matter, a very difficult matter because of the circumstances in relation to the victims, because I am not unaware of the fact that when somebody is murdered in a family like this, it is not just the person who died that is a victim, but it is also the members of the family who are victims, so the court takes that into consideration,” he said.

In relation to Taffe, Justice Pusey said the court — in taking note of the plea in mitigation address by defence attorney Equiano and the social enquiry report where Taffe took responsibility for the crime — had formed the view that “it is clear that there is total fault on his side. Not just in how he disposed of the body but the continued fiction that he lived in relation to this crime”.

“In sentencing him, I have considered the sentence in the original trial; he was sentenced to life imprisonment, serving 20 years before eligibility for parole. He has spent some 13 years in custody. I have also taken into consideration the fact of his age, that as a man of 61 it means that were he to continue the life sentence he would be basically a burden to the State within a fairly short time,” Justice Pusey said.

The judge, in indicating that he used the previous sentence of life imprisonment and 20 years before eligibility for parole as a guideline, said he was of the view that, based on Taffe’s age, a term of years would be appropriate.

“Based on that, the minimum term of years would be 15 years, I have considered that in relation the circumstances of this case, and having pleaded guilty, a term of 17 years would be appropriate. It means that he would be available for release from sentence when he would be in his late 70s. The major consideration in terms of the term of years is his age and the fact that I believe that is the only credit he can get, based on his guilty plea. I think that serving a total of 30 years would be appropriate in relation to this matter as somebody who has pleaded guilty,” Justice Pusey declared.

Equiano, making his plea and mitigation address ahead of the sentence being handed down, said it was “a very, very unfortunate situation”.

According to Equiano, the confession had come after he met with Taffe on a number of occasions in preparation for the new trial.

“On or about the third occasion in trying to prepare for the trial Mr Taffe did something a lot of men don’t do: He broke down and he said to me he can’t go through with this anymore, and there he admitted certain things and we decided that there is only one way that this matter can go, and I found that was very commendable,” Equiano said.

According to the attorney, his client said the murder happened after a fight in which Heron told him “certain things”.

“Something went wrong, he snapped. That thing that harms so many of us — jealousy. Certain things were said to him and that caused him to lose control. He did what he could not imagine that he could have done — hurt somebody he considered to be very dear to him,” Equiano stated.

According to the attorney, when he asked Taffe why the late confession, the former vendor said, “Nicole was somebody I loved very much, we had a very good relationship, and it was difficult for me to accept that I killed her. It took a very long time.”

“I am happy that he finally reached the stage where he can accept what he did and be remorseful for it. I think that is very, very commendable of him. One of the things he also said to me is that he cannot put the family through this again, knowing that he is responsible for her death,” Equiano said further.

“It has been 13 years now since he is in custody, he has finally accepted his responsibility and in so doing he cannot right the wrong but can at least avoid certain things, particularly for the relatives of Nicole. They don’t have to go through trial again. I ask that in sentencing Mr Taffe you consider the very positive aspects of him — a man who started out at age 12 and has done a lot of things for himself. He is now 61 years old, has accepted responsibility,” the attorney added.

He, in the meantime, said Taffe, whose life was far from easy, started working to support himself from age 12 as a vendor in Coronation Market selling small produce until “he built up a big stall and earned pretty good money”.

“He was able to buy a bit of land in Havendale in 2001 and he took seven years to build his home out of his selling. It was also in the market that he met Nicole. He had other children and he maintained all of them. Though illiterate, he was a good entrepreneur and a good businessman,” the attorney said.

According to the facts, on April 3, 2012 the 26-year-old Heron left her mother’s home to visit Taffe — with whom she had been in a relationship for four years — at his home in Havendale, St Andrew.

She did not return to her mother’s house.

On April 6, Taffe went to Heron’s mother’s place of business and told her he had left her daughter at his home on April 4 while he went out, but returned to find her, as well as his two television sets, missing.

Taffe, when later called by the mother and asked where Heron was, reportedly said: “Don’t worry yourself, she safe, don’t run up yuh pressure, she soon come.” He, on the other hand, told her sister that Heron had left for “a stage show in Ocho Rios” before telling her father that she left “with friends for Ocho Rios”.

After a missing person’s report was filed for Heron, Taffe told her sister, “Nicole alright, man, she soon pop up like peas.” When asked if she would “be in pieces” he said, “No, she jus’ a go pop up; have some faith, you will soon see her, about Wednesday/Thursday.”

On May 5, 2012 a burnt rubbish heap was found in Taffe’s yard containing remnants of Heron’s clothing, her bag, and hairpiece. Beneath the rubbish heap was a septic pit in which Heron’s decomposing body was found. The body was wrapped in a comforter with the head almost completely severed. A rock was tied to one of her ankles.

On Sunday, May 6, 2012, Taffe, when accosted by the police, raised his hands and said, “Daniel God will surely deliver, hallelujah, hallelujah.” When cautioned further he supposedly “spoke in tongues” before telling the police, “Mi could not kill Nicole, a she look afta me and tek care a mi foot.”

On another occasion when taken to his home by cops and a justice of the peace, Taffe admitted that the master bedroom, where traces of blood later confirmed to be Heron’s were found, had been shared by them.

A post-mortem report revealed that the cause of death was due to decapitation and multiple sharp injuries to the neck and face.

Heron, at the time of her death, had a five-month-old daughter, a seven-year-old son, and a 12-year-old daughter.