“It takes a special kind of evil to deliberately kill a baby.”
So says Chief Justice Bryan Sykes as he sentenced David Smith to life in prison for the murder of 10-month-old Sarayah Paulwell and her mother, 27-year-old Toshyna Patterson.
Smith, a 35-year-old painter from Mountain View in Kingston, will have to serve 45-years before becoming eligible for parole.
The judgement was handed down in the Supreme Court on Friday.
Robian Williams was there.
In delivering the sentence, Chief Justice Bryan Sykes said the killings were particularly egregious because David Smith had no connection to the victims and had no reason to plot their deaths.
He noted that Sarayah Paulwell was still shot despite being a child.
He added that the circumstances would have been especially traumatic for her mother if she witnessed the shooting.
Justice Sykes said life imprisonment should, in circumstances such as this, truly mean life behind bars.
He said while he would accept the sentence recommendations before him, the agreement was far more generous than what he would have imposed.
The Chief Justice also rejected the suggestion that punishment reduces crime, saying the purpose of punishment is to reflect society’s condemnation of the offence.
He questioned why someone who deliberately takes another person’s life should have the opportunity to be free.
Justice Sykes was also struck by the fact that Smith is the father of two daughters.
He described it as “the irony of it all” that Smith, who has a good relationship with his daughters and is an active parent, still saw it fit to kill two other daughters.
Smith had claimed he was not the main perpetrator in the killing of the mother and daughter, and expressed remorse, telling the court he would have made a different decision if he could go back and change what happened.
But Justice Sykes said, “You seemed to have convinced the probation officer that you have expressed remorse. I won’t say it is so.”
Justice Sykes said Smith had several opportunities to withdraw from the plan but instead, he effectively undermined the economic stability of his own family, as well as that of the victims.
Patterson and her 10-month-old daughter were abducted and murdered on September 9, 2023.
Smith pleaded guilty on June 10 this year, to two counts of murder and two counts of kidnapping.
For the murder of Toshyna Patterson, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison at hard labour.
For the murder of Sarayah Paulwell, he was sentenced to life imprisonment, with eligibility for parole after 45 years.
He received two years for kidnapping Patterson and three years for kidnapping Sarayah.
All four sentences are to run concurrently.
Smith was represented by attorneys Franklin Grenyion and Shamar Hanson.
Two other men charged in the case, Richard Brown and Roshane Miller, had previously pleaded guilty and were sentenced.
Meanwhile, alleged mastermind Leoda Bradshaw and co-accused Bjorn Black and Roland Balfour remain in custody.
They are scheduled to return to court on February 8, 2027, for a trial-readiness hearing, with the trial set to begin on February 22 that same year.
