80 years for one, retrial for second in 2015 family massacre

AN appeal from two men serving life behind bars for the “brutal execution-type slaying” of six members of one family and the arson of the family home, which left four survivors severely burnt, has resulted in one felon losing his bid to overturn his conviction and his 80-year pre-parole period being affirmed, while the other is heading to a retrial for the six murders. The Appeal Court, however, affirmed the sentences for that man on five other counts.

The men, Mikhail Campbell and Errol Clarke, had been jointly charged, tried, and convicted on an indictment containing 11 counts for the offences of arson (count one), murder (counts two to seven), and causing grievous bodily harm with intent (counts eight to 11) before Supreme Court Judge Justice Martin Gayle and a jury in the Hanover Circuit Court in November 2018. The jury convicted both men on all 11 counts, unanimously in the case of Campbell and by a majority of five to two in the case of Clarke.

Campbell and Clarke were sentenced to 20 years’ imprisonment for arson and 20 years’ imprisonment for each count of causing grievous bodily harm with intent. Campbell was sentenced to life imprisonment on each of the six counts of murder, with the stipulation that he would not be eligible for parole until after serving 43 years for the first three counts of murder and 40 years for the remaining three. Clarke was also sentenced to life imprisonment for each of the six counts of murder; however, it was stipulated that he should serve 40 years before becoming eligible for parole on each count. For both men, Justice Gayle ruled that counts one to four and counts five to 11 were to be served concurrently, while counts five to 11 were to be served consecutively to counts one to four, resulting in a total minimum sentence of 80 years’ imprisonment before eligibility for parole.