The Tribune

By LAMECH JOHNSON

Tribune Staff Reporter

ljohnson@tribunemedia.net

A MAN’s sentencing for the paid execution of a banker has been delayed by a month due to an ongoing trial before his sentencing judge.

Janaldo Farrington, 23, appeared before Justice Roy Jones yesterday expecting to learn his punishment for the murder of Stephen Sherman, having been found unanimously guilty by a jury a little more than three months ago.

However, Justice Jones could not preside over the proceedings at yesterday’s scheduled time due to an ongoing trial before him.

He told prosecutor Sandradee Gardiner and defence attorney Nathan Smith that the matter would have to be adjourned. The matter was deferred to February 19.

Mr Sherman, an assistant manager at the Royal Bank of Canada in Palmdale, was shot in the head when he pulled up to his Yamacraw Shores home on the evening of February 17, 2012.

He was robbed of his cell phone before being shot. His niece, who was in the car with him, was also robbed.

Renee Sherman, his wife, along with Farrington and Cordero Bethel, both of Pinewood Gardens, were charged with conspiring to commit murder.

Farrington and Bethel were together charged with his murder and the two armed robberies while the widow was charged with aiding and abetting the murder of her husband. All three denied the charges.

During trial, the widow and Bethel were acquitted of their respective charges on the direction of the judge, leaving only Farrington to answer to the charges against him because of a confession that he gave to the police on February 24, 2012.

On October 8, 2013, before excusing the jury to deliberate on a verdict for the four counts Farrington faced, Justice Roy Jones told the 12-member jury that “the case stands and falls on your acceptance or rejection of the confession statement”.

Having deliberated on the evidence in the case for three hours, the jury returned with the unanimous guilty verdicts on the two charges and a third charge of armed robbery concerning Mr Sherman.

The jury was split 8-4 on the other armed robbery charge concerning Sherman’s niece, but the majority guilty verdict was accepted.