A history of violence

The contract killer who is going to prison for the execution-style murder of a Manchester sales representative was released from a juvenile prison just over a year after he was convicted for illegal gun possession as a minor, law enforcement sources have disclosed.

Jevaughn Whyne was 14 years old when he was convicted in 2006 for illegal possession of firearm and ammunition, sources said, citing police records.

He was held with a Bryco 9mm pistol.

However, by December 2007, Whyne was released from the Stony Hill Correctional Institution where he was placed following the conviction, one source revealed.

Eight years after his release, Whyne began racking up a string of arrests for gun-related and other crimes. He was never convicted for any of those crimes.

On January 16, 2015, he was arrested and charged for wounding with intent, according to one source.

More than a year later, on March 21, 2016, Whyne was arrested and charged, along with a relative, for illegal possession of a firearm and assault occasioning bodily harm, the source disclosed.

In 2018, he was charged with illegal possession of a firearm following an incident in which he allegedly shot at a police team, according to the sources.

“A gun was recovered but prosecutors had some difficulty proving possession and control of the firearm so he was acquitted of that,” the source explained.

In 2019, Whyne was again acquitted of assault occasioning bodily harm.

Last Friday, Whyne, now 33, was sentenced to life in prison and ordered to serve 26 years and eight months before being eligible for parole for the execution-style murder of Dishion Thompson, 25, in Christiana, Manchester on March 5, 2022.

He was also sentenced to 11 years and eight months in prison for the illegal possession of firearm conviction. Both sentences are to be served concurrently.

Whyne was convicted on both charges following a two-week trial that ended on June 20.

EVIDENCE

Prosecutors Natallie Malcolm, a deputy director of public prosecutions, and Debra Bryan, an assistant director of public prosecutions, led evidence that Whyne entered a bar in the quiet rural community of Silent Hill and ordered a cigarette.

After smoking the cigarette, he pulled a gun and ordered all the patrons to lie face down before standing between Thompson’s legs and opening fire at close range. He escaped in a waiting car.

Thompson was labelled an “informa” for allegedly alerting his employers to a fraudulent scheme that was siphoning millions of dollars from the Manchester-based hardware store where he worked, according to evidence in the case.

Whyne’s 2006 conviction for illegal gun possession and the string of charges laid against him were available during his sentencing hearing last Friday, sources revealed.

However, the presiding judge made no reference to the conviction because it happened while he was a minor, one source explained.

The charges were not taken into account because none of them ended with convictions.

Murder cases involving the use of a firearm are closed to the public.

Collette Bailey, the mother of the victim, said she is pleased with the sentence, “because God knows what he is doing”.

“If I am going to put any trust in God, I have to believe that, whatever the outcome is, God knows the right thing,” she told The Gleaner on Saturday.

“So, if that is what God did, that is what is supposed to be done.”

However, in a family impact statement that was read out in court during the sentencing hearing, Bailey described how her son’s death has left her an “emotional wreck”.

“His father and I are mere shadows of what we used to be before our son’s murder. He was our hope that in our later years we would receive the best care and so would be able to leave this world in a dignified manner,” she said.

Bailey said her other children have since migrated “permanently” to “better cope with the emotional trauma of their brother’s death”.

livern.barrett@gleanerjm.com