Jamaican police officers to be sentenced in May

Justice Carol Lawrence will on May 17 decide on the fate of three police officers convicted of shooting to death a 16-year-old student in 2012.

The judge was due to hand down the sentencing on Friday, but the attorneys for Constables Andre Wain Smith, Durvin Hayles and Anna-Kay Bailey asked the High Court to delay the sentencing until social enquiry reports on their clients are submitted.

The three police officers were convicted in February for the murder of Vanessa Kirkland, a student of the Immaculate Conception High, who was killed in March 2012 when members of a police team opened gunfire on a vehicle in which she was a passenger. Five other passengers in the vehicle were also shot.

The police officers had testified that they acted in self-defence after gunmen alighted the vehicle and opened fire at them. They also said they found several stolen items in the vehicle

The police officers face a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.