

Thirty-eight years and nine months!
That is the amount of time that Tesha Miller, who was recently convicted of accessory before and after the fact of a murder, will be required to spend behind bars for the 2008 murder of Douglas Chambers, the then chairman of the state-owned Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC).
An ex-gang member testified of Miller being the then undisputed leader of the feared Spanish Town-based Clansman gang, and him giving the clear order for Chambers’ killing.
The fixed sentences were handed down about 4.20 pm on Thursday by Justice Georgiana Fraser in the Home Circuit Court in downtown Kingston.
Miller was sentenced to 38 years and nine months for being an accessory before murder in relation to Chambers’ killing, and to 18 months for being an accessory after the fact of murder. The sentences are to run concurrently, so Miller, 40, is to serve 38 years and nine months behind bars.
Said to be a welder by profession, Miller was found guilty of involvement with Chambers’ murder by a seven-member jury on December 3 last year. His sentencing was put off until January 9.
Earlier in the day on Thursday, there was a delays in the sentencing hearing to allow Miller’s attorney, Bert Samuels, to review the social enquiry report that was prepared for his client, and to allow two character witnesses who were running late, to arrive at court.
That the ‘glowing’ social enquiry report did not do much to sway the judge was made clear by Justice Fraser in handing down the sentences, when she said Miller had not demonstrated the capacity for reform.
According to Fraser, such reform must start with an admission of wrongdoing.
At his trial, Miller, in an unsworn statement from the dock, declared his innocence.
The judge said she viewed the social enquiry report with mixed feelings.

Douglas Chambers
At trial, the main prosecution witnessed testified that Miller ordered the hit on Chambers, who was shot and killed outside the main gate of the JUTC’s Spanish Town depot, which also houses the company’s Corporate Office. Chambers had stepped out of a meeting that he was chairing to buy some cigarettes and take a puff.
Justice Fraser likened Miller’s role in the killing of Chambers to that of a puppet master, and she pointed to the high number of gun-related murders in the society.
Andre ‘Blackman’ Bryan and a man identified only as ‘Brucky’, the latter of whom is now deceased, were said to be the triggermen in Chambers’ murder. Bryan was charged for the murder, but was acquitted in 2016. He and several of his family members, as well as other reputed members of the Clansman gang, are, however, currently before the courts on gang-related charges.
The 29-year-old witness who entered a plea deal which saw him getting reduced jail time for a murder sentence he is presently serving, told the court that he had been affiliated with the gang from the time he was just 13-years-old. He testified that he decided to co-operate with the prosecution because he had lost 13 members of his family at the hands of the gang over the years, and felt it was time to help put an end to the killings.
Samuels has already advised that Miller intends to appeal the conviction.







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