Lawyer seeks shorter sentence for woman who killed BDF officer

The attorney for confessed murderer Faith Angelica Pile has submitted to the Court of Appeal that her sentence should be reduced because of the six-year delay in adjudication of her case.

Appearing before the appellate board consisting of Chief Justice Leslie Haynes and Justices of Appeal William Chandler and Victoria Charles Clarke on Thursday, defence lawyer Sian Lange pointed out that the matter took three years to reach the stage of the High Court and six years in total to be completed.

She said that was the case even though the matter was not “overly complex” as it did not require any forensic investigation, since Pile and her co-conspirators had admitted to killing Barbados Defence Force Private David Blenman.

Lange based her argument on the James Field decision which stated that where there is unreasonable delay, that should be considered by the court. “The appellant would have been charged with the murder of the deceased in December 2016 and the indictment in the matter would have been signed by the DPP [Director of Public Prosecutions] in July 2019 and the matter first heard in the Criminal Assizes in December 2019, and I am submitting to the court that the appellant ought to be given a reduction for delay in the time that it took from the date of charge to the date of the matter first appearing in the High Court – that period of three years,” Lange argued.

“My position is that the court ought to consider that two years is a reasonable time taking into account what currently obtains in our jurisdiction.”

Pile, along with her brother Jamar Antonio Pile and her partner Shaquan Sherwin Omar Crichlow, all of Skeete’s Road,

Jackman’s, St Michael, had pleaded guilty to the non-capital murder of 26-year-old Blenman of Golden Mile, Heywoods, St Peter between November 30 and December 1, 2016. His body had been discovered at Foul Bay Beach, St Philip.

In June 2022, Justice Randall Worrell imposed 30-year starting sentences on Faith Pile and Crichlow and a starting sentence of 33 years for Jamar Pile. In sentencing the first two, the judge moved the starting point downwards by three years to 27 years because of the mitigating features, including that Faith was 18 years old and Crichlow was 19 when the crime was committed.

One-third discounts for the guilty pleas brought the sentences to 18 years or 6 570 days each, and after the 2 009 days they spent on remand were deducted, the two were left with 4 561 days to serve.
Jamar Pile was given a starting sentence of 33 years, which was reduced by three years to 30 or 7 300 days. The 1 447 days he spent on remand were then deducted, leaving him with 5 853 days left to serve.

The appellate board adjourned the matter until January 28, 2025, when submissions from attorneys Dennis Headley and Safiya Moore who represent appellants Crichlow and Jamar Pile, respectively, are expected to be heard.