FREEPORT – The brothers of Canadian Marcia Rose McKenzie were ”shocked and disappointed” with the verdict brought down on Thursday afternoon by a Supreme Court jury that found Sergio Penn not guilty of murder, but guilt of manslaughter for the horrific killing of their sister.
Michael and Jeff McKenzie, who came from Toronto for the trial in Freeport, were also deeply upset with the 16-year prison sentence handed down on 19-year-old Penn by Justice Stephen Isaacs.
On failing to bring back the required unanimous guilty verdict against the accused for murder, the jurors brought back a 9-3 guilty verdict on the charge of manslaughter.
Marcy Rose McKenzie, 35, of Toronto, Canada, was brutally killed on August 17, 2002 at Sandy Point, Abaco. She had been chopped seven times about the body with a cutlass and her body left in a sandpit on the beach.
Accused Sergio Penn, also known as Leroy Russell, who was 17 years old at the time of the killing, had confessed to police on videotape during an interview to the killing of Ms McKenzie after crabbing on the beach.
Following the guilty verdict of manslaughter, defence lawyer Kara Butler pleaded with Justice Isaacs to take into consideration the two years that her client had already spent in prison awaiting trial. She also added that the accused deserved an opportunity to be rehabilitated and to enter back into society as a productive citizen. Justice Isaacs, who took into consideration that the accused had no previous convictions sentenced Penn to 16 years in prison.
The McKenzies said that the death of their sister had been devestating on their family.
”We’re very disappointed he wasn’t found guilty of murder because manslaughter means that there was some reason for the killing, but with Marcy I cannot believe she gave him any reason to kill her except for maybe trying to protect herself from him attacking her,” said Michael McKenzie. ”I think it was a light sentence, especially since I have been told that they only serve two-thirds of that. And the idea that he is going to be back out in a matter of 12 years or so is not right.”
”What type of message does it send to everybody out there?” asked Jeff McKenzie. ”They perpetrated such a horrific crime and the sentence that is only 16 years? In our society I don’t think there is any more serious and awful crime, and to say that a person’s life is only worth 16 years is upsetting and disturbing.”
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Source: Denise Maycock, The Tribune
