FALMOUTH, Trelawny – It has not been easy but worshippers at the Falmouth church where Andrea Lowe Garwood was gunned down in January 2021 have managed to pick up the pieces. Pastor Junior Rutty believes his flock is coping well.

They still use the same space where the 51-year-old banker was shot four times by an assailant who had taken a seat in the chair behind hers, waiting to snuff out her life for the modest sum of $170,000.

“There were chairs, it was not like it was marked and anything like that. So everybody sits down, that’s it. There are no special marks. We have moved beyond that,” Pastor Rutty said matter-of-factly in response to queries from the Jamaica Observer on Tuesday.

Lowe Garwood’s shocking murder was captured on video – live-streamed to worshippers who praised God from the safety of their houses, a way to keep themselves safe from the COVID-19 pandemic that raged at the time. As the shots rang out, those inside the Agape Christian Fellowship Church scrambled for cover.

In the days after the murder, inside the place of worship, Pastor Rutty had expressed hope that the speedy delivery of justice would help bring closure.

“If perpetrators are brought to justice, it will result in a level of satisfaction in the healing process, not that it would close everything because those things become a strong part of your memory. It is something that you live through that goes with different individuals every time it comes up,” Pastor Rutty suggested. “I think, in all cases, when justice is served that suits the crime, people become very thankful in the [justice] system when it works out that way, and it helps to bring closure to the situation.”

On Tuesday, however, he declined to comment on the recent verdicts handed down in the case.

Charged with murder and accessory to murder before the fact, Lowe Garwood’s stepson Javan Garwood walked free after the convicted triggerman Dwight Bingham refused to take the stand in the prosecution’s case against him. Bingham, found guilty of murder, is to be sentenced on July 25. Leon Hines, the getaway driver who testified against Garwood and Bingham, has been sentenced to six years in prison.

According to the account Hines gave when he took the witness stand last week, he lives four houses away from Bingham. He told the court that on the morning of Sunday, January 31, he transported the triggerman to Falmouth in a rented Toyota Allion motorcar.

He recalled that upon reaching Falmouth, Bingham, whom he knew as Prince, removed a firearm from his waist and placed it in a black pouch, then alighted from the vehicle and headed into the church.

Hines said after about 10 minutes elapsed, Bingham returned to the vehicle and informed him that the church service was not yet underway.

Under Bingham’s instruction, Hines said, he drove to Greenwood at the border of Trelawny and St James to purchase two meals.

“He did not want to come out [of the car]. I came out and bought both breakfasts,” said Hines.

He told the court that upon their return to Falmouth, Bingham asked him to park in a lane adjacent to the building that houses the church, then, again, left the vehicle carrying the black pouch containing the gun.

Hines said he was about to start eating when he heard five explosions coming from the vicinity of the church, shortly after which Bingham returned and boarded the vehicle.

Hines told the court that Bingham then commanded, “Burn up the road. Hurry up and drive.”

Hines said when Bingham got into the vehicle, the triggerman took off his shirt, cap, and mask and was sweating profusely.

Bingham reportedly told Hines he had dropped his cellular phone, but when Hines offered to return to the church to retrieve it, the triggerman said, “Let it stay.”

On their way from the murder scene, Hines said Bingham asked him to stop at a store in Greenwood, St James, so he could purchase credit for Hines’ cellphone. The convicted getaway driver told the court that Bingham started frantically making calls using Hines’ topped-up cellphone.

Hines, Bingham and Garwood were subsequently charged for Lowe Garwood’s killing.