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A 30-year-old man from Man­zanil­la has been sen­tenced to a lit­tle over 17 years in prison af­ter ad­mit­ting to mur­der­ing an el­der­ly busi­ness­man dur­ing a botched kid­nap­ping at­tempt in 2014.

Arnold Ash­ton, of Nar­i­va Road, Man­zanil­la, was await­ing tri­al for mur­der for well over a decade be­fore he was al­lowed to plead guilty to the less­er of­fence of felony mur­der based on a plea agree­ment with the Of­fice of the Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions (DPP) ne­go­ti­at­ed by his at­tor­neys Shawn Mor­ris and Janiel Chuck.

Un­der the felony mur­der rule, the manda­to­ry death penal­ty for mur­der is waived in cir­cum­stances where death oc­curred dur­ing the com­mis­sion of a less­er crim­i­nal of­fence.