Following the first murder conviction since the Privy Council ruled that the mandatory death sentence in The Bahamas was unconstitutional, a Supreme Court judge yesterday scheduled a sentencing hearing for a convicted murderer.
After a jury of 11 women and one man took less than three hours to find Maxwell Tito guilty of murdering 16-year-old Donell Conover, Justice Anita Allen noted the Privy Council’s recent ruling and set a sentencing hearing for Monday, April 3rd.
In the past, Tito would have been automatically sentenced to death.
In the absence of procedures that the Attorney General’s Office said would be put in place “swiftly,” Justice Allen gave the prosecution and defence counsel two days to make their sentencing submissions in writing, and told the court that she would also order a social welfare report to help her in determining a sentence.
But it’s a process that Tito’s lawyer, Wayne Munroe, has doubts about.
“The judge, to her credit, has clearly, presiding over a murder trial, addressed her mind to what she would do if a result was as it turned out to be,” Mr. Munroe told The Bahama Journal yesterday after the verdict.
“She has come up with a procedure, a procedure in my view, I don’t think is adequate, but then I’m not the judge and like she says, in foreign territory, she’s a judge and she does what she thinks is right unless the appellate court or the Privy Council tells her she got it wrong.”
Tito was unanimously convicted of murdering Miss Conover, whose body was found in a quarry pit off Cowpen Road on May 1st, 2002. Her skull had been crushed and her body was covered in burn marks.
Tito sat emotionless as the verdict was read and when asked by Justice Allen if he had anything to say for himself, he responded: “I share my condolences with the family but I didn’t do it. I maintain my innocence.”
Donell’s mother, Laverne Conover, cried quietly in the court after the verdict was delivered and later said that she was at peace now that her four-year wait for a decision had finally come to an end.
“Maybe now Donell is also resting in peace,” she told The Journal outside of the court yesterday.
There was no direct evidence linking Tito to the murder of Miss Cononver; however, the prosecution centred its case on DNA evidence and testimony that Tito called the high school student from a club shortly after 1 a.m. on May 1st and told her that that he was on his way to pick her up in a white truck.
Miss Conover’s DNA was found in a blood swab taken from near the lock of a white Chevy truck that prosecutors said Tito borrowed from Derek Bastian the night before the teenager’s body was found.
Lavern Connover testified that the family went to a political rally that night before her daughter’s body was found and returned home shortly after midnight.
She said the last time she saw her daughter alive, Donell was sitting at the dinning room table reading the “Manifesto.”
Forensic evidence pointed to the possibility that Donell’s head may have been crushed by a vehicle’s tire.
During the trial, the defence raised a number of questions about the testimony of prosecution witnesses, particularly Derek Bastian, who had been convicted of manslaughter in a “violent homicide,” and maintained that Tito was at home at the time of the murder and had nothing to do with Miss Conover’s death.
Mr. Munroe believes the conviction was a prime case in which the jury must say the basis upon which they convicted Tito and stated for court records yesterday that the jury’s involvement was needed in the sentencing process.
“They would have convicted him on the basis that he would have been in the truck when it would have come into contact with the victim, now the question is how did that come about?” he asked.
There are many potentials but the jury has not specified which one led to the conviction, Mr. Munroe argued.
Justice Allen noted that a jury had never been involved in sentencing procedures and said she would proceed accordingly, in the absence of instructions from the Privy Council.
Mr. Munroe said he would “definitely” appeal his client’s conviction, but will first have to get through the aspects of sentencing.
“You take things one step at a time. [Tito] maintains his innocence and that innocence we’ll seek to vindicate in the appeals process,” he said.
Tito, who was out on bail during the trial, was remanded to Her Majesty’s Prison pending his sentencing hearing, which has been set for Monday, April 3rd.
By: Erica Wells, The Bahama Journal
