DCP Stewart lauds investigators after 30-year sentence in Jean-Pierre Rhone murder
/ Our Today
administrator
Anthony Henry
Head of the Jamaica Constabulary Force’s Crime and Security Portfolio, Deputy Commissioner of Police Richard Stewart, has praised the investigative team and forensic experts following the conviction and sentencing of 26-year-old Shamar Clarke for the 2018 murder of businessman Jean-Pierre Rhone.
Clarke, who was sentenced to 30 years’ imprisonment, will be eligible for parole after 24 years and six months. Clarke was also sentenced on charges of simple larceny and preventing the lawful burial of a corpse.
The conviction resulted from collaboration between the Criminal Investigations Branch and the Communication Forensics and Cybercrime Division, which investigated Rhone’s disappearance after he was reported missing in October 2018.
Rhone, a 27-year-old manager of New Era Fencing Limited and Property Services, went missing two days after celebrating his birthday. He was reported missing on October 17, 2018. Three days later, on Friday, October 19, 2018, at about 12:30 pm, relatives searching for him discovered the body of a man in an abandoned building in Port Royal.
On Saturday, October 20, 2018, Clarke, a former teacher and ex-employee of the victim, was taken into custody. Investigators presented what was described as overwhelming evidence, after which Clarke confessed to the murder. A post-mortem examination conducted on October 27, 2028, confirmed the body as that of Jean-Pierre Rhone, with the cause of death determined to be strangulation.
Rhone’s partially decomposed, naked body was found wrapped in a sheet and buried under sand in bushes in Port Royal. His motor vehicle, bank cards and mobile phones were missing at the time of discovery. Clarke was subsequently charged with murder, preventing the lawful burial of a corpse and simple larceny, and was convicted of strangling Rhone and disposing of his body.
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