SVG: Men jailed for contract killing

CMC – The High Court judge in St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) has sentenced three men to prison ranging from 34 years to life imprisonment, after they were found guilty of murdering two brothers, one whom was a police officer in 2017.

Justice Brian Cottle sentenced Schemel “Jacket” Dunbar, 35 and Kendine “Hoodie” Douglas, 36, to life imprisonment and Richard “Carib” Francis, 38, to 33 years and nine months in prison.

However, Dunbar and Douglas would be eligible for parole after 30 years, while no such review was ordered for Francis, who was the mastermind of the killings.

Dunbar and Douglas were on June 9,this year found guilty of the May 4, 2017 murder of Danroy Cozier, a 26-year-old police constable, and Nicholas Cozier, his 19-year-old brother.

Francis pleaded guilty to the charges at a trial that began in November 2022 and the judge discharged the jury and ordered a new trial of his co-accused before a new jury.

Justice Cottle in his summary, said that on April 26, 2018, Constable Cozier was driving to his home with his wife and their infant child as passengers, when a minivan, driven by Francis, an ex-constable, collided with the vehicle.

The two discussed the incident and Francis accepted responsibility and undertook to pay Cozier, but he never upheld the agreement.

He instead hired Dunbar to murder Cozier and with Douglas as his assistant, they committed the crime on May 4, 2018, after Francis telephoned Cozier and invited him to meet to collect the money.

Cozier was at his mother’s home and took his younger brother along with him.

CCTV footage showed Francis having a conversation with Cozier then he and the brothers entered Francis’ van, which left the area.  The court was told that Dunbar was concealed somewhere in the rear of the van and suddenly appeared as they were driving along.

He shot both Coziers and post mortem examinations revealed that they were each shot in the head. They later took the bodies to a beach where they dumped them.

But some fishermen found the bodies shortly after and contacted the police.

Dunbar and Douglas were arrested later that same day. Douglas had with him a bag of clothes that appeared to be wet and bloody. Francis was arrested at his home and the inside of his van showed traces of blood.

Francis and Douglas admitted to participating in the killings but denied firing any of the fatal shots.

Justice Cottle said the prosecution did not seek the death penalty, noting that the case did not rise to the Privy Council’s standard of killings for which the death penalty should be imposed.

“Despite the senseless killing of a police constable and his younger brother over a minor debt, the case does not rise to the level where the Privy Council considers it to be the worst of the worst,” Justice Cottle said, adding that one of the victims was a police officer and the killers knew this before the murder.

He said that it was a contract killing as Francis considered it more economical to pay for the killing than the repair of Cozier’s vehicle.

“It was the murder of two people,” the judge further stated, noting that the court agreed with the prosecution that the crimes were exceptionally serious.

The judge noted that the three men had spent six year and three months in prison, leaving Francis to serve a further 33 years and nine months for the murder of the police officer and a similar sentence for the murder of his younger brother.

The judge said that both killings were part of the same transaction and, therefore, ordered that the sentences run concurrently.

In the case of Dunbar and Douglas, they were both sentenced to spend the rest of their natural life in prison for the murder of the officer and the same sentence would apply for the death of the younger Cozier, with the sentences running concurrently.

In handing down on Douglas the same sentence as he did on Dunbar, the judge said that in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, it is popularly said that the upholder is worse than the thief.

He, however, said he chose not to distinguish between Dunbar and Douglas as they had acted as a team and would share the same fate.