(Jamaica Gleaner) The former household helper and her boyfriend who have been convicted of killing university lecturer Dr Peter Vogel have each been sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Justice Evon Brown, who handed down sentence this afternoon, has ordered that Yanika Scott and Kelvin Downer must serve 15 years before they are eligible for parole.
“This was a senseless crime, one that gives flesh to the saying ‘Dog bite the hand that feed him’,” Brown said, before announcing the sentence in the Home Circuit Court in downtown Kingston.
“I’m at a loss as to how the decision resort to such extreme violence was made in this case,” he added.
Both Scott and Downer showed no emotion as the sentence was announced.
Prosecutors Maxine Jackson and Kelly-Ann Francis led evidence during the three-week trial that Vogel’s body was found inside the study room at his home in College Commons, St Andrew in July 2007 by his then six-year-old son, Daniel.
Vogel, a Swiss national, was found with his hands tied behind his back, his feet bound at the ankles and a piece of cloth tied around his mouth.
Forensic pathologist Dr S N Prasad Kadiyala testified that Vogel was strangled.
