Nearly four years after Catherine Pickering was shot to death during the robbery of her daughter at their Paraquita Bay home, Akeem Hopkinson was sentenced to 35 years in prison for murdering the 67-year-old woman.
On Monday morning, Mr. Hopkinson entered the defendant’s box in High Court to hear Justice Rajiv Persad’s decisions on how he should be punished.
The judge handed down sentences on four charges for which Mr. Hopkinson was convicted on Feb. 25: murder, robbery, possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life, and possession of a prohibited weapon.
Murder sentence
Beginning with the murder conviction, the justice explained why he decided not to hand down the maximum sentence of life in prison.
“I do not think you are not capable of rehabilitation,” Mr. Persad told Mr. Hopkinson.
He added that the starting point for the murder sentence was 34 years. To that, the judge added two years and three months after considering aggravating factors such as Ms. Pickering’s advanced age and Mr. Hopkinson’s previous convictions.
Then, after examining mitigating factors shown in a social inquiry report about the offender, the justice reduced the sentence by one year and three months. This left Mr. Hopkinson with a sentence of 35 years.
Remand
The judge then deducted the 36 months that Mr. Hopkinson had served while on remand.
This calculation took some clarification from His Majesty’s Prison Service because the time Mr. Hopkinson was on remand coincided with part of the time he was serving for a violent assault, according to the judge.
To date, Mr. Hopkinson has been in custody for 46 months, attorneys confirmed at the hearing. It was determined that Mr. Hopkinson had served 10 of those months as a punishment for the previous conviction; the remaining 36 months were considered as remand.
The judge also ruled that Mr. Hopkinson will be eligible for parole for the murder conviction after 16 years.
Concurrent sentences
Additionally, the judge handed down prison sentences for Mr. Hopkinson’s other three convictions, each of which is to run concurrently with the murder sentence.
Due to the aggravating factors of the robbery, two years were added to the starting point of a 20-year sentence, the judge said. Then the 36 months Mr. Hopkinson served while on remand were deducted, leaving him with 19 years left to serve for that crime.
For the third charge — possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life — Mr. Hopkinson will have to serve 17 years after the remand time was deducted.
And for possession of a prohibited weapon, he will have to serve seven years after the remand deduction from a 10-year sentence.
The fourth charge was the only one that involved events that allegedly occurred on April 16, 2021 — two days before the robbery and murder.
Others sentenced
Earlier that morning, four other men appeared before the court to be sentenced as well.
Shemar Richardson — who allegedly provided information that facilitated the robbery of Ms. Pickering’s daughter, Maricel Pickering — pleaded guilty to robbery.
He was sentenced to nine years and seven months.
The judge came to this number after deducting two years due to mitigating factors of the offence, including the claim that Mr. Richardson played a minor role in the robbery; deducting four years due to mitigating factors for the offender; and deducting 29 months for Mr. Richardson’s guilty plea.
Since Mr. Richardson has served 46 months on remand, he has five years and nine months left to serve.
He will be eligible for parole after he serves three years, the judge decided.
Gun charge
Three other men — K’Shoy Alexander, Richard Haripersad and Jordan Jackson — also appeared before the court Monday morning for their role in events that occurred two days before the robbery, on April 16, 2021.
Each pleaded guilty to possession of a prohibited weapon, a charge the justice stressed had nothing to do with the robbery and murder that occurred two days later.
The crime carries a minimum sentence of 10 years, though the justice said he chose to exercise his discretion to lower the sentence given the circumstances.
CCTV footage, for instance, showed that Mr. Hopkinson brought an item that appeared to be a firearm into his home and displayed it to the three men, none of whom resided with Mr. Hopkinson. Two of the men handled the gun while another did not, according to the judge.
Though he emphasised that their actions amounted to a “serious, serious offence,” the judge decided to use his discretion to put the starting point at three years.
He then deducted a year due to mitigating factors including the defendants’ youth and “lack of maturity.”
Guilty pleas
All three men also received deductions for pleading guilty. Mr. Jackson, who pleaded guilty early in the court process, had his sentence reduced by eight months.
Having served about a month on remand, he will have to serve another year and three months in prison.
Messrs. Alexander and Haripersad, who pleaded guilty later in the justice process, each earned a five-month reduction, to a 19-month sentence.
Mr. Haripersad, who had spent 43 months on remand, was released for time served on Monday morning. Mr. Alexander, who spent 25 months on remand, was also released for time served.