Jamaica: Woman sentenced to life in prison for killing of 8-year-old

CMC – A woman who confessed to killing Danielle Rowe, an eight-year-old girl, in June last year, was on Friday sentenced to life imprisonment when she appeared in court.

Kayodi Satchell was sentenced to serve 27 years and four months before she’s eligible for parole.

She was also sentenced to six years and three months for child stealing.

“Sheer evil” is how Justice Carolyn Tie-Powell described the ordeal Danielle Rowe experienced on June 8, 2023.

Addressing Satchell, Justice Tie-Powell lamented that to kill a defenceless human being is vile, but to kill an innocent eight-year-old child can only be regarded as evil.

The Judge told Satchell that only a term of life imprisonment is appropriate for the “reprehensible, wicked, callous and heinous act” she had done.

Tie-Powell pointed out that Satchell’s actions have resulted in a mother burying her child, which is unnatural in the ordinary scheme of life.

Earlier in the proceedings, Tie-Powell made it clear that Satchell’s submission that she killed Danielle because she allegedly contracted HIV from the child’s father, which resulted in the loss of her pregnancy, is not a mitigating factor.

Balancing the aggravating factors, the judge pointed out that Danielle was unarmed, defenceless, helpless and vulnerable.

The Judge said the fact that the eight-year-old was taken from her school, a place where she ought to feel safe, speaks to Satchell’s brazenness.

Meanwhile, Danielle’s mother Sudeen Mason, having heard that Satchell killed her daughter on her expected due date, withdrew her forgiveness.

“I initially felt really sorry for her because I’m saying that Danielle’s father was the reason why she did what she did, even though it was wrong; he gave her a sickness that she had to live with for the rest of her life. So I felt sorry for her at that time when she told me sorry. But hearing what I heard just now, I’ve changed my mind,” Mason said.