BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THREE young men from Challengers Village were sentenced to life in prison on Friday (Jul. 14) for a murder they committed on January, 27, 2011.
The sentences were handed down to 31-year-old Denroy Simmonds, Nicholas Riley (28) and Keith Murray (30) in the Basseterre High Court by Justice Trevor Warde, QC.
The trio was charged with the murder of George Livingston Queeley and was convicted on Tuesday, March 7. 2017.
Queeley went missing in late January 2011 and his remains were discovered in a grave within the Challenger’s Mountain area on Thursday, November 14, 2013 during a joint operation by members of the Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force and the St. Kitts-Nevis Defence Force.
According to information received by this publication at that time, a young man had reportedly told the police that he had a troubled spirit because of being present when Queeley was killed.
He had taken the officers to the area where he claimed that he and the three convicted men had buried Queeley after Simmonds and Murray had shot him.
The individual also claimed that he and the three men were farming an illegal crop in Challengers Mountain and they had discovered that Queeley was doing the same on a nearby plot of land.
He further claimed that Queeley was warned not to return in that area or he would be killed, but the he did not pay heed to the threat as he returned the next day and was killed by Simmonds and Murray.
Reports coming out of the court on Friday’s sentencing hearing indicated that Justice Warde said it was a heinous, cold-blooded and senseless murder. And, after his assessment of each defendants’ blameworthiness, pointed out that although Riley’s social inquiry report had stated that he did not pull the trigger, he was however present when the plan was hatched and also when Queeley was killed, as well as helping to bury the body.
Court reports also indicated that in his consideration for sentencing, Justice Warde looked at the mitigating factors which included the men’s age at the time the offence was committed and also their unblemished criminal records.
However, the judge noted that the aggravating factors had outweighed the mitigating factors; in that the murder was premeditated, the men had planned to commit it, they did so with the use of a firearm, and they had concealed the body on completion of the act.
Riley was represented by Attorney-at-Law Hesketh Benjamin; Simmonds by Jason Hamilton; and Murray Dr. Henry Broene, QC, Ogrenville Browne and Marrissa Hobson-Newman, all of who indicated that their clients would be appealing the case.
