Father to serve at least 33 years for killing son

(CNS): Roger Davard Bush (47), who was found guilty in June of murdering his son, will be almost 80 years old when he is eligible to apply for release from jail. When he appeared in court on Thursday, a judge handed him a 33-year minimum tariff for his life sentence, three years more than the statutory basic tariff. Bush gunned down Shaquille Demario Bush at the family home in Daisy Lane, West Bay, in November 2019. In her sentence ruling Justice Marlene Carter, who presided over the case, described the murder as “particularly gruesome”.

The judge said she found no mitigating circumstances in the case and dismissed claims by Bush’s attorneys that if Bush was the killer, the evidence suggested that he was provoked. However, the judge said that since he still maintains he was not the person who gunned down Bush, he couldn’t now claim that he was provoked, as he had been given more than enough time and opportunity to tell the police and the court what had really happened that night.

Justice Carter said the case was aggravated by several factors, including the pre-possession and then use of the semi-automatic gun that Bush fired multiple times as he chased his son around the yard, and then, as he lay injured on the floor, shot him in the head. Prosecutors said Bush had murdered his son “in a hail of bullets“.

The judge also noted another aggravating factor that led to the increase in the tariff, which was Bush’s enlistment following his arrest of a police officer to intimidate a key witness.

Bush had managed to get a police officer working at the detention centre to go into the cell where his girlfriend was being held after they had both been arrested in the wake of the killing and tell her to keep quiet. The intimidation worked and for more than 18 months it prevented Nikkieta Ebanks from telling the police what she knew about Bush’s movements on the night of the killing and the confession he made to her.

That former police officer, who still cannot be named for legal reasons, is expected to stand trial early next year.

As the judge handed down her ruling, including a concurrent sentence of ten years for the possession of an unlicensed firearm, Bush, who has been on remand for 547 days, had little reaction as he was sent down to serve the remaining 31 years and eight months before he will be eligible to appear before the Conditional Release Board.