Razor B Says Quintuple Murderer Rushane Barnett Should Receive “No Leniency”
Bruk Back artist Razor B has expressed disappointment that the death penalty is no longer being sought for Rushane Barnett, the Trelawny man who admitted to murdering four children and their mother as they slept in their house at Cocoa Piece in Clarendon.
In late June, 31-year-old Kemesha Wright and her children, Kimanda Smith, 15, Sharalee Smith, 12, Rafaella Smith, 5, and 23-month-old Kishawn Henry Jr, were discovered inside their with chop wounds and their throats slashed, a crime to which Barnett later confessed to doing.
Barnett, 23, who had been staying at the house fled the area and headed back to his home in Wilson Run in Trelawny, but was later apprehended by the police, and was later put on notice that he would be facing the death penalty after being charged.
Responding to the news that Director of Public Prosecutions, Paula Llewellyn, had told the Supreme Court yesterday, that as a matter of law, she was obliged to withdraw the death penalty notice against Barnett, Razor B indicated that he wished the execution notice had been upheld, as the act was too gruesome for the killer to be given only a custodial sentence.
“We pay very high taxes and I refused to spend my hard working money on this monster… when him did a stab up the babies him never give a f-ck … 4 him murder and in a jail wid phone eating, sleeping well on hard working tax payers money,” the Portmore native noted on ZJ Sparks IG page.
“Set an example so these type of crimes don’t happen again. We did already know it was him who slaughtered the 4 innocent bout leniency for admitting to crime 🙄,” he added.
The DPP’s withdrawal of the death penalty for Barnett, is based on two mitigating factors which she said that the Crown had to “search for, the fact that he pleaded guilty early and that it “would appear that he has expressed remorse by doing so”.
In June Downsound producer Skatta Burrell has expressed unease after learning that Barnett, was ordered to undergo a psychiatric evaluation “following a request from the Crown” after he appeared in the Home Circuit Court via a voluntary bill of indictment. According to Skatta, he had already run out of patience with Barnett and those of his ilk.
Skatta’s former Downsound stablemate and Calabar High School compatriot Foota Hype, had, after hearing the news of the killing, had taken to social media, to express his ire, noting that at one point in time any man brazen enough to commit such heinous acts in Jamaica, would have been hunted by the public who would exact their own form of justice.
Like Foota, Dancehall deejay Masicka, another Calabar man, had also expressed chagrin at Barnett’s devilish deeds, declaring, during his performance at Reggae Sumfest, that if he were in the position of the police officers, the culprit would not have been brought in alive.
On Wednesday, during Barnett’s sentencing hearing, the DPP, in outlining contents of the report of a forensic psychiatrist who had assessed Barnett, said it was revealed that the confessed murderer “was not labouring under a psychiatric illness at the time he acted”.
The psychiatrist’s report stated that Barnett displayed antisocial personality traits, but “has no major mental illness”.
The forensic psychiatrist noted that Barnett “displayed superficial charm, deceitfulness, lack in remorse, lack of empathy, adult antisocial behaviour and also the possible presence of impulsivity, and does not accept responsibility”, all hallmarks of a psychopath.
Barnett admitted to killing the five, claiming voices which he had been hearing voices since he was 18 years old in his head, which he attributed to “Obeah”, told him to do so. However, the expert said that Barnett has no prior reported history of psychopathology and that he was “not influenced by any abnormality of the mind at the time of the murders”.
“He was aware and master of his thoughts. He knew exactly what he was doing but clearly he had a sense of entitlement… there was a clear intent,” the DPP had said of Barnett.