Two Jamaican men get life sentences for killing priest they met on popular gay dating app
The two men who were charged with the murder of 36-year-old Anglican Priest, Reverend Father Larius Lewis, of Chapelton in Clarendon last year, have been sentenced to life imprisonment.
The convicts are 22-year-old Lloyd Thompson, otherwise called ‘Danjay’, and 20-year-old Tafari Wilson, both of Roxborough district in Clarendon.
Following their sentencing hearing on Thursday in the Clarendon Circuit Court, presiding High Court Judge, Justice Dale Palmer, ordered that Thompson serve 21 years in prison before being eligible for parole consideration.
Lloyd Thompson (left) and Tafari Wilson
In relation to Wilson, he was ordered to serve 19 years behind bars before being eligible for parole consideration.
Both men pleaded guilty earlier this year to the murder of the priest a case that has been referred to as a “crime of passion”.
The accused men confessed to having met the clergyman on popular homosexual dating app, Grindr.
According to Jamaica Observer, they reportedly killed Lewis because he favoured one more than the other during an encounter at the clergyman’s home in Chapelton.
At the time of their arrest, a police report indicated that about 4:30pm on Wednesday, September 23, 2020, Thompson, Wilson and Lewis got into an argument, during which a piece of furniture was used to hit Lewis on the head.
The men then reportedly stole a desktop computer, a tablet, a Samsung A10 smartphone and a 2018 Hyundai Creta motor vehicle from the clergyman’s home.
An investigation was launched into the death, which led to the arrest of the suspects in late January 2021 photograph of the now convicted men, indicating that they were missing.
However, reports later surfaced that Thompson and Wilson had been arrested after being implicated in the priest’s killing.
