The Nassau Guardian
Murderer gets 50 years on resentencing
A former death row inmate who now mentors at-risk children has been resentenced to 50 years in prison.
Shelton Moss, 51, has already spent 26 years in prison.
He was convicted in May 1989 of the murder of Phillip Kelly, a beach warden. The 1984 murder happened while Kelly was on duty at the Western Esplanade.
The evidence at the trial in 1989 showed that Moss and his friends called Kelly to the car in which they were traveling and Moss shot him in the chest with a shotgun. Kelly died instantly.
Moss did not know Kelly, but he was part of a gang that targeted law enforcement officers. After the murder, Moss fled to Jamaica. He was returned to the country in 1986.
Seventeen years after his conviction, the Privy Council quashed the mandatory death sentence after declaring the penalty unconstitutional.
Moss appeared before Senior Justice Jon Isaacs on Wednesday to be resentenced in compliance with that 2006 decision.
During his address to the court, Moss said, “I am not the same person I was many years ago, when I was contributing to negativeness, to foolishness.”
Moss said his life now has purpose and that he had availed himself of training opportunities at the prison to make himself a better person.
He said he wanted the opportunity to continue his mentorship of people, who had also fallen in with “the wrong crowd”.
Moss apologized for the pain he caused the victim’s family and his own. He said his incarceration affected his mother and he was certain that Kelly’s family mourned his loss.
According to Moss’ lawyer, Devard Francis, Moss was part of the government’s shock treatment program, which is geared at showing delinquent children the potential consequences of their actions.
In spite of Moss’ turnaround, Isaacs said he had to consider the circumstances of the crime. He said at the time of conviction he believed the death penalty was the appropriate sentence.
“It is apparent that Kelly was called to the vehicle for the expressed purpose for retaliation for what he or a member of his unit had done to you or a member of your group,” Isaacs said.
He continued: “Perhaps you are a different individual from the person who was sentenced in 1989. While I take that into account, the greatest degree of leniency I can give is not to impose a sentence of life. You are sentenced to 50 years, with effect from May 18, 1989.”
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