William ‘Danny’ Mason and others appeal conviction for murder of Pastor Lewellyn Lucas

Published by [email protected] at December 13, 2021

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Posted: Monday, December 13, 2021. 8:45 pm CST.

By Benjamin Flowers: The appeal of William “Danny Mason” and five others convicted of the 2016 murder of Dangriga pastor Lewellyn Lucas, began virtually today with a Case Management Conference (CMC) at the Court of Appeal.

Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Cheryl Lynn-Vidal is personally representing the Crown in the case, while Mason and Dexter Todd are being represented by Hubert Elrington, Senior Counsel (SC); Ashton Vanegas, represented by Norman Rodriguez; and Anthony Slyvester is representing Keiron Fernandez, Terrence Fernandez, and Ernest Castillo. The appeal is being heard by President of the Court of Appeal, Madam Minette Hafiz Beltran who has set the hearing of the appeal for June 2022.

At the CMC it was agreed that the grounds of appeal for the appellants are to be filed by January 10, 2022; submissions on the grounds of appeal are set for February 7, 2022, and then the DPP herself, Cheryl Lynn-Vidal will respond on May 2, 2022. On May 9, 2022, the defense attorneys for convicted men are to respond to the DPP’s submission, and then a precise and exact date in June of 2022 will be decided on for oral arguments before a decision is made.

Mason et. al. were convicted in a trial without jury back in 2019, of beheading Pastor Lucas, whose head was found on ice, in a bucket in the pan of Mason’s pickup truck. Lucas’s burnt remains were found at Mason’s farm located at Miles 32 in the George Price Highway.

Mason, the Fernandez brothers, and Vanegas were all sentenced to 35 years without the possibility of parole until after serving 35 years in jail. They had four years shaved off their sentence for the time spent on remand. Meanwhile, Castillo the youngest of the men, was sentenced to 30 years, due to his age at the time of conviction and the possibility of rehabilitation.

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