Khanice Jackson’s killer begs for mercy

The lawyer representing Robert Fowler, the St Catherine mechanic who strangled 20 year-old accounting clerk Khanice Jackson and left her body in a ditch, has begged the court to show him some mercy.

Fowler pleaded guilty to murder on March 8. His sentencing hearing commenced in the Home Circuit Court in downtown Kingston on Thursday, but was adjourned until a week when Justice Leighton Pusey will impose a sentence.

Lead prosecutor Jeremy Taylor urged the court to order that Fowler serve 20 years in prison before he is eligible for parole. He faces a mandatory life sentence.

Taylor urged the court to take note of the violent homicide rate in Jamaica and pointed to the confessed killer's attempts to conceal the crime by twice moving Jackson's body and dumping her personal belongings in Cross Roads, St Andrew.

However, Fowler's attorney, Linden Wellesley, in his submissions, urged Justice Pusey to "temper justice with mercy".

"We are like mendicants before you. I use the word mendicants because Mr Fowler has not wasted the court's time," he said, referring to the discount given to convicts who enter a guilty plea early in their case.

Jackson's decomposing body was found in a ditch along Dyke Road, in St Catherine, on March 26, 2021, two days after family members reported her missing.

Fowler gave police investigators a caution statement in the presence of his attorney detailing how he and Jackson got into an argument inside his car.

He described how they got into an argument over money and how he slid over to the back seat and used a rope to strangle the 20-year-old until froth came to her mouth and her body stopped shaking.

Fowler and Jackson were not involved in a romantic relationship, but he had promised her money to buy a gift for her boyfriend, prosecutors said, citing his caution statement.