23 More Years for Earl Baptist Jr., for Murder

Tonight, Earl Baptist Junior, is serving his second night of his remaining twenty-three-year sentence after he was found guilty of murder in July and handed down a twenty-five-year jail term. Earlier this year, Baptist Junior was found guilty of the murder of thirty-two-year-old Leslie Norman Gillett, a businessman who was tragically killed inside Matilda’s Shop, in Burrell Boom Village back in January 2022. Justice Derick Sylvester presided over the case. The Crown presented video footage of the murder and a police witness who identified Earl Baptist as one of the shooters.  At his sentencing on Monday, the judge handed down a twenty-five-year prison term, although the Crown had pushed for thirty-five years for what they called a cold-blooded murder. The judge found no mitigating factors in the case. He was convinced by the Crown that they had proven the five elements of murder beyond a reasonable doubt: Gillett was dead, he died from harm, Baptist caused the harm, he did so with the intent to kill, and there was no lawful justification for the harm.  Justice Sylvester also noted that the Crown successfully demonstrated that the electronic evidence was untampered, despite the defense questioning the integrity of the video footage. The footage from the murder scene was admitted as evidence against Baptist.