The murder market is a booming one as contract killings range from $150,000- $500,000 depending on the target. Women play a big role in the operations and are also involved in hiring killers to murder persons on their behalf.

MURDER FOR HIRE

CRIMINALS ADOPT BUSINESS MODELS FOR BLOODSHED IN CONTRACT-KILLING SPREE

30 Jan 2022/Erica Virtue Senior Gleaner Writer

POLICE INVESTIGATORS have come across a number of these deadly schemes in recent years.

In June 2020, a masked gunman shot and killed 36-year-old Tamara Geddes in front of her 10-year-old daughter at their home in Reserve, Trelawny, to settle a family dispute over land.

Last year, Geddes’ sister, Nadeen Geddes, was sentenced to 20 years for murder and five years for conspiracy to murder for her role in the scheme.

Nadeen’s daughters – 22-year-old Shanice Ruddock and a minor, who had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to murder – were both handed three years’ suspended sentences.

Fifty-five-year-old Owen Irving, who pleaded guilty to murder and conspiracy to murder, and 33-year-old Tashana Young, who had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to murder, were also sentenced to 20 years and five years, respectively.

A sixth person charged in the scheme, 24-year-old Bryan Shelly, who is believed to be the man who pulled the trigger, is still before the courts.

In another case in that parish, a gunman believed to have unleashed a deadly assault on banker Andrea Lowe-Garwood as she worshipped in a live-streamed church service in Falmouth a year ago was also suspected by cops to have been a hired hitman active in a number of homicides.

Cops believe a hefty sum was paid for the hit on Lowe-Garwood and are still tracing the money.

Last year, 24-year-old contract killer Wade Blackwood was sentenced to life in prison for the 2018 shooting deaths of businesswoman Simone Campbell-Collymore and taxi driver Winston Walter in Red Hills, St Andrew, after pleading guilty.

Portland businessman Everton ‘Beachy Stout’ McDonald, is also still before the courts for his alleged role in the murders of his former spouse and wife. Contract killer Denvalyn Minott, who pleaded guilty in 2020, detailed how he lured Tonia McDonald to a deserted roadway in the parish and watched as the man he sub-contracted stabbed her repeatedly in July that year.

Minott was sentenced to 19 years in prison and ordered to serve 10 years before he becomes eligible for parole.

Despite this, t he cops are making some progress, Bailey said, noting that far more lives could have been lost through direct hits in the last five years were it not for proactive policing.

“One a yearly basis, on what we call threat-to-life engagement, the police save an average of 300 lives through proactivity. These would have been victims of contract killings, which [the police] moved out of danger,” he said, referring to a situation called target-hardening.

SEARCHING ‘ROUND THE CLOCK

“I remember in one situation, my officers were frantically trying to find the target of hit. They were searching ‘round the clock to find the target to move them out of danger,” he explained. “The public is not aware of the amount of resources we invest to prevent lives from being lost – where we know that Tom Jones’ life is in danger and we have to deploy resources to prevent it.”

Last year, the police intercepted what they believed to have been a hit squad on their way to execute three women – a mother, aunt and grandmother of a minor in what is believed to be tied to a child custody case – in western Jamaica, who had a $400,000 bounty on their heads.

Acting on intelligence, the cops arrested seven persons within 24 hours in a series of operations across the Corporate Area, among them a district constable who had reportedly submitted his resignation to the police force, which had not yet been processed, and was out on sick leave. The cops also seized an American tactical hybrid rifle, at least three handguns, several rounds of ammunition, firearm magazines, and police apparel.

The police believe the mastermind of the plot, who is known to them, is hiding in the United States.

“We are in trouble in this country. I am in the field, and I am in the trenches. This is domestic terrorism. This is like the Taliban telling someone that you conform or die,” Bailey told The Sunday Gleaner, adding that the public should be aware of the threats not only law enforcement personnel, but also citizens, face daily.

“When gangsters tell you that if you don’t pay extortion, we are going to burn down your business, and kill your workers, that is an economic ideology based on killing, we might just get to the point where gangs say we cannot live on a particular road if we do not pay extortion. And people are saying that the use of ‘terrorism’ is too strong,” added the senior cop.

Bailey lamented that even with the scored successes, criminals are still able to direct hits from within the nation’s prisons, noting that just like law enforcement agencies, crooks were employing the use of technology to their advantage.

“Unless there is controlled use of the telephones among incarcerated persons, the telephone can become one of the most dangerous weapons to a killer,” Bailey noted.

Last December, Parliament passed the Corrections (Amendment) Act to make it more punitive for persons caught behind bars with cell phones, with nearly 6,000 such devices were confiscated in the prisons between 2016 and 2020.

“Recently, one gang member charged under the anti-gang legislation, while in custody, he masterminded several murders in Westmoreland. We recovered the phone and saw all the communication, among other things. Though behind bars, he is feared by persons on the outside,” said Bailey, who manages the crime and security portfolio in the Jamaica Constabulary Force.

 

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