Mayreau murderer sentenced to 17 years

As Jerome Ollivierre, 42, was being escorted back to prison from the High Court on July 12, he asked a journalist what things were like in Mayreau after the July 1 devastating impact of Hurricane Beryl.

However, Ollivierre will not be available to help to rebuild the Southern Grenadines island — his home island – unless the recovery takes two decades.

He will remain in prison — where he been since 2018 – for the next 17 years for murder and burglary.

On Wednesday — his last day as a High Court judge – Justice Brian Cottle sentenced Ollivierre in connection with the 2018 murder of a security guard during a burglary at GEC Auto Supplies in Arnos Vale.

Ollivierre had initially pleaded not guilty to the charge but pleaded in as his trial was about to begin at High Court No. 1, in Kingstown in July.

At the sentencing hearing, Ollivierre’s lawyer, Duane Daniel said his client was employed before the incident and supported his two children. 

Ollivierre, who is originally from the Grenadines, was visiting St. Vincent at the time of the crime.

Daniel said that on the day of the crime, Ollivierre was visiting a nightspot and fell in with bad company.

Sometime after the burglary and killing, Ollivierre told a friend of his who is a police friend that he was involved in the crime. This admission led to a “chain reaction of events” that culminated with the sentencing.

The facts, as summarised by the judge, are that at the end of the business day on Aug. 31, 2018, the employees of GEC Auto Supplies, at Arnos Vale, secured the premises and left the building intact.

The business had also engaged Professional Security Services to secure the premises.

Rodney George, 50, of Victoria Village, was the security guard that night.

When the employees returned to work the next morning, they found a hole in the galvanised roof of the building, the interior ransacked and the vault missing.

George’s body was found in a locked bathroom with his hands and legs bound and his throat slashed.

The police were called in and an investigation began.

In September 2018, Ollivierre spoke to a friend, a member of the Royal St. Vincent and the Grenadines Police Force and told him that he had killed a man.

The officer did not believe Ollivierre until the second occasion when he repeated that he was involved and provided details of the crime.

The officer encouraged Ollivierre to turn himself in to the police.

Ollivierre was interviewed electronically but denied involvement. He then asked for a second interview and confessed to the crimes.

Ollivierre said he and his other burglars had taken turns stabbing Rodney in the neck.

An autopsy found that Rodney died as a result of multiple stab wounds.

The judge established a starting point of 40 years.

He found that aggravating of the offence was that the incident happened at night, it was a group activity, the murder was unprovoked, it occurred at a place of employment, Rodney’s hands and feet were bound and he was stabbed multiple times.

Mitigating of the offence, Ollivierre voluntarily surrendered himself to the police and cooperated with them.

There were no aggravating features of the offender as Ollivierre had previous convictions, which were spent.

Mitigating of the offender, he showed remorse and is a good candidate for rehabilitation.

Justice Cottle found that the mitigating and aggravating factors balanced out each other and so he did not adjust the starting point.

The judge, however, awarded Ollivierre the full one-third discount for his guilty plea, saying while it did not come at the earliest opportunity, Ollivierre had confessed to police.

This brought the sentence to 26 years and eight months.

The judge then deducted the five years, nine months and 27 days that Olliverre spent on remand, leaving a sentence of 20 years, 10 months and three days.

He gave a further three years deduction on the sentence because of Ollivierre’s assistance to and cooperation with the police, leaving a prison term of 17 years and three months.

On the burglary charge, the judge established a starting sentence of 10 years and six months or 75% or the maximum 14 years.

Aggravating of the offence was that Ollivierre was equipped with tools and a hole was cut in the roof of the building to carry out the act, the offence took place at night and a vehicle was used in the commission of the crime.

There was nothing mitigating of the offence and nothing aggravating of the offender

Mitigating of the offender was his early confession to the police and that he was remorseful.

Justice Cottle said that the mitigating and aggravating factors balanced out each other.

The judge awarded the full one-third discount for Ollivierre’s guilty plea, leaving a sentence of seven years and one month.

Additionally, the time spent on remand — five years, nine months and seven days — was also deducted, leaving Ollivierre to spend one year, three months and three days in prison.

The sentences will run concurrently.