Harold Nichols (left), and his colleague missionary for the Pennsylvania-based Teams for Medical Missions, Randy Hentzel of Iowa, United States, who were murdered in Jamaica in 2016. (Photos: NBC News)
THE 2016 murder of two American missionaries has not stopped the medical mission they were a part of to stop doing its charity work in Jamaica .
A director of the mission made the disclosure in an interview with the Jamaica Observer Thursday, shortly after Andre Thomas, one of the men charged with the murder of Harold Nichols, 53, and Randy Hentzel, 49, was found guilty in the Supreme Court.
His co-accused Dwight Henry had already pleaded guilty and is serving life in prison.
The mission director, whose identity is being withheld, told the Observer that his team of volunteers is currently in St Mary providing aid to the surrounding communities and will be there until the end of August.
“We’ve been doing it for seven years. That was one of the things that we made a commitment to say that it wasn’t about Jamaica, it wasn’t about our ministry, it wasn’t about anything, it was about two guys who decided to do something they shouldn’t do,” he said, a sombre look on his face.
At the same time, the group director said he was pleased with the outcome of the case.
“They were missionaries in our organisation. We are pleased in that there’s now some closure. I believe the verdict is an accurate one, based on what we know and don’t know. We are pleased that this thing is coming to a close after seven years,” the man said.
The director, who was the only one present Thursday to represent the friends and families of Nichols and Hentzel, said, “We had the two wives that were here and basically it’s just [an] expensive endeavour to be here for the length of the whole trial. We were hoping [for] it to be over in a week or two and so at the end of two weeks when it wasn’t happening they just had to head back home.”
Nichols and Hentzel were members of the Pennsylvania-based Teams for Medical Missions. They went missing on Saturday, April 30, 2016 after leaving their Tower Isle, St Mary, homes on motorcycles to visit a site where they would be doing charity work the following week.
When they did not return, a search party later that day discovered Hentzel’s body lying face down, his green helmet still over his head, with his arms bound behind his back by a piece of cloth torn from the green T-shirt in which he was clad. Nichols’ body was found some distance away on Sunday afternoon.
Meanwhile, the lead prosecutor in the case told the Observer that she is satisfied with the verdict.
“As prosecutors, we have a duty and we have carried out our duty as minister justice as best we can. The jury deliberated and they have delivered their result and we accept that. I would say that I was aware that what we had was a case that had a number of issues, but as prosecutors we know that our duty is to put up the best possible case that we can, based on the material that was available to us and that was done. We’re satisfied with the process,” she said.
During the reading of the verdict Thomas showed no visible reaction while his fate was being announced as he sat in the prisoner’s dock. It took the panel of seven jurors to reach a unanimous verdict approximately one hour.
Addressing Thomas, presiding judge Justice Leighton Pusey said, “Mr Thomas, a jury of your peers have found you guilty in relation to both counts of murder and the matter will move now to sentencing.”
Thomas was remanded until October 13, when a date for sentencing will be scheduled. A social enquiry report and Thomas’s antecedents were requested to assist in sentencing.
Thomas and his co-accused, Dwight Henry, were arrested in June 2016. However, Henry who had taken a plea deal, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in 28 years.
During the four weeks-long trial, the Crown called 23 witnesses to support its case, with Henry being a key witness, while the defence only called Thomas, who gave an unsworn statement on Tuesday that despite observing the murders, he did not participate in the killings.
Thomas was represented by attorney Leroy Equiano.
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