NINETY-YEAR-OLD Roy Nesbeth, the farmer who in 2023 bludgeoned his 73-year-old wife and their 80-year-old boss to death in a jealous fury, has been sentenced to 17 years behind bars for taking his wife’s life, and 22 years for their former employer.

The sentences will run concurrently, meaning that Nesbeth will spend 22 years, the longer of the two terms behind bars, before he is released.

Nesbeth was sentenced in the Hanover Circuit Court by Supreme Court Justice Courtney Daye on Tuesday afternoon in the matter which was prosecuted by Acting Deputy Director of Public Prosecutions Malike Kellier and Crown Counsel Loyata Richards.

According to the social enquiry report of the elderly farmer, a copy of which was seen by the Jamaica Observer, Nesbeth, who accepted full responsibility for his actions, maintained that he had neither planned nor intentionally murdered any of the victims.

He further told interviewers that based on his age and “awareness of life’s brevity”, he regretted finding himself in the situation and went on to point out that he had never broken the law before. In appealing to the court for leniency, Nesbeth requested that, should a custodial sentence be imposed, that it be of a short duration as he would not wish to “spend the limited time he has left behind bars”.

Nesbeth, who was on Tuesday, December 30, 2025 found guilty by a jury of seven for the murders of Tera Anderson-Nesbeth, his wife of 10 years; and retired nurse Patsy Allen, in a caution statement had blamed Allen, his dead employer, for the feud which cost her and his wife their lives.

The couple, who had been in a relationship for 30 years prior to their marriage, both worked for Allen.

According to Nesbeth, on the day of the incidents (August 12, 2023), he had an argument with his wife at their home in Grange District, Hanover, because she had stopped washing his clothes and was hiding £30 (approx $6,400) from him. He said she declared that she was done with him which “greatly upset” him. He further outlined that while she was bending to sort laundry to wash, he took up a stick, “a digger” that he normally uses on his farm, and hit his wife three times in her head and on her shoulder.

According to the farmer, he then went to Allen’s house in Kendel District in the same parish, where he accused her of ruining his marriage, and accused a younger relative of hers of wanting to steal his wife. Nesbeth said he boxed (slapped Allen, then took up a screwdriver and “jammed her with it in her shoulder” and left.

“I’m telling you the truth, I didn’t know that when I boxed and jammed Miss Patsy with the screwdriver that she would die. I’m not lying, I caused their deaths, I killed them. I am confessing, as God knows that I killed them,” Nesbeth said in court documents, translated from patois for this publication.

During a question and answer session with cops, when asked “why did you kill your wife”, Nesbeth said, “It’s the lie she told me, and I am 85 years old, and I have nobody to take care of me… and she started a relationship with a 50-year-old man… after I took her up with four children.”

Asked how he killed his wife he said, “Mi lick her with a digging bill.”

Asked why he killed Allen, he said, “Because she’s bad, she’s a wicked woman, she is the one who mash up my married life.”

Following the interview, when informed that he was under arrest for reasonable suspicion of two counts of murder and cautioned, Nesbeth said, “I don’t know what drive me to do this, is Patsy cause all a this.”

Some days later, Nesbeth, referring to his wife, told a cop, “Officer, I hit her but I didn’t hit her for her to die, but because she got no help, she bled out. I don’t know how this happened, we’ve been together for 40 years and we don’t quarrel.”

A weeping Nesbeth reportedly further said, “I can’t believe I killed Patsy and my wife. I prayed to God and asked Him to forgive me… Three times I put the rope around my neck to kill myself because I wanted to go lie down beside my wife, and God talk to me and said, ‘Don’t kill yourself’, because I already confessed to Him, and I should go turn myself in, so I did it.”

In the meantime, the social enquiry report for Nesbeth said he attended primary school in St James but left school during childhood and is a “non-reader”. It is alleged that he was abandoned by his mother and raised by a caregiver during which time he was reportedly “physically abused, subjected to strenuous labour from an early age and denied access to school”.

A son of Nesbeth who was interviewed described him as a good father and expressed surprise at his actions.

Community members who recalled Nesbeth as a hardworking individual who was cordial and shared a good relationship with his wife, said they believed jealousy had fuelled his actions which they said was shocking. However, all individuals interviewed expressed the view that he should face the full penalty of the law. Relatives of the victims said they continue to struggle with the loss of their loved ones, noting the distressing way their lives were taken and requested that Nesbeth be given a custodial sentence.

According to the report of a probation after-care officer for Nesbeth, “A careful assessment of the matter suggests that Nesbeth may have found himself in this unfortunate situation due to multiple contributing factors including age-related cognitive declines, impaired judgement and impulse control.” According to the report, these elements compounded by stressors such as isolation and jealously appear to have influenced the violent and grievous conduct.

A forensic psychological evaluation of Nesbeth found that overall he displayed challenges in his intellectual capabilities and poor to moderate memory functioning.