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Woman to serve life imprisonment for husband's murder
Published: Wednesday | July 13, 2011 0 Comments
Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter
A woman who plotted with other persons to murder her husband, Timo Pellinen, a 53-year-old doctor from Finland, has been ordered by the Court of Appeal to serve her sentence for murder.
Melody Baugh Pellinen, 30, of Lyssons, St Thomas, was married to Dr Pellinen for two years when he was fatally shot on the night of October 1, 2005. The couple met in England.
Dr Pellinen arrived in the island on the night he was murdered. He and the appellant were travelling along the Harmony Hall main road in Trelawny when she stopped the motor car she was driving at a lonely spot to urinate. A motor car drove up and hit the back of the motor car in which the couple was travelling. Dr Pellinen came out to find out what had happened and was shot twice.
The Crown led evidence at the trial that the wife plotted to murder her husband because he gave her a copy of his will in which she was the beneficiary of his assets, which included a house in Finland. The crown also relied on a conversation she had with a female prisoner, that she knew about the murder of her husband and it was her boyfriend who did it.
Marvin Stewart, 37, carpenter, of Lyssons, was charged jointly with Baugh Pellinen, but he was freed on a no-case submission.
Baugh Pellinen was convicted in December 2007 of the murder. She was sentenced to life imprisonment and ordered to serve 21 years before parole.
She filed several grounds of appeal, arguing that the prosecution's case was weak; therefore, Supreme Court Judge Courtney Daye should have upheld the no-case submission.
Attorney-at-law Kathy Pyke and crown counsel Paula Archer-Hall, who represented the Crown, argued that the jury's verdict was supported by evidence which showed that the appellant had much to gain from the death of her husband. They argued that the appellant was present at the scene of the murder, aiding and abetting the implementation of the plan by making her husband accessible to the killer when she stopped at a very lonely place en route from the airport.
The Court of Appeal, comprising Justice Karl Harrison (now retired) Justice Dennis Morrison and Justice Hillary Phillips, upheld the conviction. The court ordered that her sentence must run from March 17, 2008.
Published: Wednesday | July 13, 2011 0 Comments
Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter
A woman who plotted with other persons to murder her husband, Timo Pellinen, a 53-year-old doctor from Finland, has been ordered by the Court of Appeal to serve her sentence for murder.
Melody Baugh Pellinen, 30, of Lyssons, St Thomas, was married to Dr Pellinen for two years when he was fatally shot on the night of October 1, 2005. The couple met in England.
Dr Pellinen arrived in the island on the night he was murdered. He and the appellant were travelling along the Harmony Hall main road in Trelawny when she stopped the motor car she was driving at a lonely spot to urinate. A motor car drove up and hit the back of the motor car in which the couple was travelling. Dr Pellinen came out to find out what had happened and was shot twice.
The Crown led evidence at the trial that the wife plotted to murder her husband because he gave her a copy of his will in which she was the beneficiary of his assets, which included a house in Finland. The crown also relied on a conversation she had with a female prisoner, that she knew about the murder of her husband and it was her boyfriend who did it.
Marvin Stewart, 37, carpenter, of Lyssons, was charged jointly with Baugh Pellinen, but he was freed on a no-case submission.
Baugh Pellinen was convicted in December 2007 of the murder. She was sentenced to life imprisonment and ordered to serve 21 years before parole.
She filed several grounds of appeal, arguing that the prosecution's case was weak; therefore, Supreme Court Judge Courtney Daye should have upheld the no-case submission.
Attorney-at-law Kathy Pyke and crown counsel Paula Archer-Hall, who represented the Crown, argued that the jury's verdict was supported by evidence which showed that the appellant had much to gain from the death of her husband. They argued that the appellant was present at the scene of the murder, aiding and abetting the implementation of the plan by making her husband accessible to the killer when she stopped at a very lonely place en route from the airport.
The Court of Appeal, comprising Justice Karl Harrison (now retired) Justice Dennis Morrison and Justice Hillary Phillips, upheld the conviction. The court ordered that her sentence must run from March 17, 2008.
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