A disagreement on Thursday between the Crown and the legal team for Leoda Bradshaw over her alleged involvement in the 2023 abduction and murder of parliamentarian Phillip Paulwell’s 10-month-old daughter, Serayah, and the child’s mother, 27-year-old Toshyna Patterson, saw Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Claudette Thompson declaring, “We are going to trial.”

Bradshaw, who has been in custody since October 2023, was expected to have a plea and case management hearing later this month but ended up in the Supreme Court for a hearing before Chief Justice Bryan Sykes after the defence asked for the matter to be brought forward.

Thompson explained that while her office had indicted Bradshaw for capital murder, the defence team for the accused woman was minded to plead guilty to non-capital murder and had served notice on the prosecution of their intention to seek a Newton Hearing.

A Newton Hearing is a legal procedure used when a defendant pleads guilty but disagrees with the prosecution over the exact facts of the crime. Because the facts affect sentencing, a judge alone decides which version is true.

“It seems my friend would like to plead guilty to murder under Section 2(2) of the Offences Against the Person Act. My understanding is that if the accused were to so plead then Milord would be limited,” Thompson pointed out.

She said the prosecution was of the view that the murder falls instead under Section 2 (1) (e) (i) of the legislation. Under that provision, which was amended recently, individuals convicted of capital murder face life imprisonment with a minimum of 50 years before parole eligibility, while non-capital murder convictions require a minimum of 45 years.

Lead counsel for Bradshaw, Deborah Martin, told the court that her client had given a detailed statement in preparation to plead guilty.

“In subsequent conversations with the Crown, they indicated that, having perused the statement, her account of events was not consistent with that of the other witnesses on whom the Crown intended to rely. They had settled their indictment,” Martin told the chief justice.

She added that the “particulars of counts one and two” in that indictment contained details which were the very essence of the disagreement between the Crown and the defence.

“The defence cannot agree a particular [specific, detailed facts supporting a legal claim or charge] that is in dispute…we do not see how to proceed,” Martin said.

File: Leoda Bradshaw’s face is covered with two face masks as she leaves the Supreme Court in downtown Kingston where she was slapped with two capital murder charges, as well as conspiracy to murder and kidnapping charges in the case of Phillip Paulwell’s missing 10-month-old daughter, Sarayah, and her mother, Toshyna Patterson. (Photo: Napthali Junior)

“Yes, but the point is that the legislation has categorised different types of murder and the type of murders that attract the death penalty…The prosecution does not appear to be seeking the death penalty up to now and, in that respect, the defendant has received significant considerations. So only question now would be sentencing and length of time,” Justice Sykes pointed out in responding to Martin.

“That is the issue, length of time and parole. We are prepared to enter the plea,” Martin said, to which Justice Sykes replied, “But to what? There are different levels of murder. When a defendant enters a plea on a set of particulars, you have to start from there…even with the particulars, there is no one size fits all, this was supposed to be a contract killing. Not all contract killings are the same…so the statute contemplates the distinction between the persons eligible for the death penalty and those who are not,” the chief justice added.

Thompson, after addressing the chief justice on the issue of sentencing, emphasised that the Crown had been “very deliberate in not serving the Death Penalty Notice” on Bradshaw.

The DPP argued that this was a “huge concession” given that a Death Penalty Notice was already served on one other accused in the same matter and added, “If there was ever a case that fits what the section intended, this would be it.”

The DPP added, “I believe the Crown has made a concession already, up until yesterday everybody knew the indictment we were proceeding on.

“We are going to trial. We will have a plea and case management date. There will be a trial.”

Justice Sykes, in adjourning the matter, said a plea and case management hearing to determine, among other things, a possible trial date will be held on June 24, with the trial set for September 28.

Thursday, Bradshaw, clad in a belted buttercup gold midi shirt-dress, her pixie-like face framed by short natural curls, observed the proceedings quietly.

Bradshaw, a former United States Navy culinary specialist, is charged with two counts of conspiracy to murder, two counts of conspiracy to kidnapping, two counts of kidnapping, and two counts of capital murder alongside her cousin Roland Balfour, alleged trigger man David Smith, and Bjorn Black. Her co-accused have all entered guilty pleas.

Patterson and her daughter were reported missing on September 9, 2023. Prosecutors say the mother and daughter were taken to Warieka Hills in St Andrew where they were shot and killed and their bodies burnt.