By pleading guilty to manslaughter, Prince Campbell Sr. avoided a mandatory death sentence that a murder conviction would have carried. The sentence was handed down Tuesday for the killing June 2003.
Campbell committed the crime after escaping from a center where he was undergoing treatment for cocaine addiction, authorities said. He took a 30-minute boat trip to Andros Island, where his estranged wife lived with her two children.
Campbell broke into his wife’s apartment and slashed her and his 4-year-old stepson, Randolph Rolle, on the arms and legs as they slept, authorities said.
Both were treated at a medical center, and Campbell evaded police until clinic workers caught him trying to break into the facility. The clinic staff locked him out and called police.
When police arrived, Campbell jumped into his van and led police on a chase to his apartment. There he rushed inside and came out with his 2-year-old son Prince Jr. in his arms, a butcher’s knife stuck in the child’s chest, authorities said.
Campbell refused to release the child despite police orders and did not relax his grip until he received a tranquilizer shot, authorities said.
Before passing sentence, Justice Anita Allen told Campbell that the case was one of the “most disturbing” that she had heard in her eight years on the bench.
“I sentence you to life, by that I mean the rest of your natural life,” Allen said.
Source: The Herald Tribune
