An 18-year-old named Michael Black was sentenced to life imprisonment on May 25, 2022. He is believed to have formed part of the Clarendon-based Bloods gang.
The crimes he pleaded guilty to include two counts of illegal possession of firearm, three counts of robbery with aggravation, and two counts of murder.
The court imposed:
Count 1: illegal possession of firearm – nine years and eight months at hard labour.
Count 2: Murder – Life imprisonment; 20 years and three months to be served before being eligible for parole.
Count 3: Murder – Life imprisonment; 20 years and three months to be served before being eligible for parole.
Count 4: illegal possession of firearm – Eight years and three months at hard labour.
Count 5: robbery with aggravation – 11 years at hard labour.
Count 6: robbery with aggravation – 11 years at hard labour.
Count 7: robbery with aggravation – 11 years and nine months at hard labour.
The sentences are to run concurrently.
If you read our last article, you understand the dilemma. Does he deserve such a harsh sentence at his barely-legal age?
Do you pity him more after learning that he was not yet 18 when he began his life of crime?
According to the prosecution, he committed the murders at 16 years old when he killed Akeem ‘Kemo’ Murray and Kamar ‘Kaftan’ Ramatar on November 18, 2020, near the intersection of Race Course and Hayes Field roads in Clarendon.
He is also guilty of conspiracy to theft; he confessed that at 17-years-old he and other gang members planned to execute a $1.7 million robbery at the Lasco MoneyGram outlet Chapelton, Clarendon on March 22, 2021.
All this before he was 18-year-old.
Now, he will be in prison for the rest of his life.