Convicted murderer Paul Gooden, a former distribution consultant at Yummy Bakery, St, Andrew, was sentenced yesterday to life behind bars and will not be eligible for parole for another 35 years.
By Barbara GayleHe was convicted on Wednesday in the Home Circuit Court for the killing of his wife ? Ingrid Andrade-Gooden ? in November last year. This is one of the stiffest prison sentences that has ever been handed down for what is known in legal circles as a crime of passion.
"This crime was particularly cruel," Mrs. Justice Marva McIntosh told Gooden, who will be 40 years old next month.
Gooden, looking dishevelled, again showed no signs of emotion, even when the sentence was passed.
The Crown had called 22 prosecution witnesses to prove its case which was based solely on circumstantial evidence, which proved that Gooden strangled his 36-year-old wife at their home between November 6 and 7 last year. The body was found in mangroves off the Norman Manley Highway, Kingston at 7:30 a.m. on November 8 last year.
Gooden's mother, Pat Gooden, musician and singer who remained quite calm throughout the trial, was displeased with the long prison term. "For a case which was based on circumstantial evidence, I did not expect such a sentence, she said in her usual calm manner as she left the courthouse.
Hugh Thompson, one of the three lawyers who represented Gooden, said, "for a crime of passion I think the sentence is a bit harsh." He said they were going to appeal the conviction and sentence.
Lord Anthony Gifford did not bother with a lengthy mitigation plea. He told the judge that he was not pleading for leniency but was instead asking for a "fitting punishment to the crime." He asked the judge to bear in mind the normal consequence which "flows when a man of hitherto good character commits a crime provoked by jealousy that the minimum sentence should be imposed."
He said having regard to the character evidence given by Dr. Michelle Levy that Gooden was an upright, hardworking and honest man, the jury having found him guilty of murdering his wife, meant he must have been provoked by exceptional circumstances. He disclosed that although they conducted Gooden's defence, they had no instructions as to what those circumstances may have been.
"However, we are entitled to submit that he should be sentenced on the basis that this crime was motivated by the motive which Director of Public Prosecutions, Kent Pantry, Q.C., with great emphasis, led before you and which the evidence can support that the crime was motivated by jealousy, obsession and rejection."
He said he was quite aware of the anguish suffered by the family of the deceased. Lord Gifford said that as far as Gooden was concerned he stood before the court with his life in ruins.
"He will be 40 next month and he has lost his liberty and good name, Lord Gifford said. He said further that the incident had caused intense pain to Gooden's mother and he had lost the ability to watch his children grow.
The judge, in passing sentence, said she took into account what Lord Gifford had said. She said she was not sentencing Gooden for acts done after the crime but was sentencing him for the crime. She told him that his lawyer had said that his life was in ruins and he had lost his liberty but she had to bear in mind that 'Ingrid' also lost her life.
Gooden's wife was an administrator at the National Housing Development Corporation (NHDC). The deceased's parents, retired Director of Public Prosecutions, Glen Andrade, Q.C., and his wife Ruby, an attorney-at-law and retired Registrar of Titles were in court yesterday.
