Criminal Court “A” at the Temple Of Justice has sentenced one Darius Wilson to 25 years in prison for murdering Police Officer Moses Bedell in the New LBS Community in May this year.
Following his indictment by the Montserrado County Grand Jury in June, Wilson pleaded guilty to murdering the police officer.
When legal proceedings in the case began, defendant Wilson pleaded guilty as charged even though the trial went on to satisfy the due process of law which saw the admittance of a prosecution witness, and direct and cross examinations of the defendant.
Prosecution witness Prince Konneh, a resident of the community where the incident occurred, had told the court and jury that on that fateful night he and others, including Bedell, had gone to sympathize with one of their neighbors.
According to Konneh’s testimony, while entering the house, he heard Wilson accusing a man of stealing his missing cell phone at which time officer Bedell told him to stop disturbing.
This angered Wilson and led to a situation which later degenerated into conflict.
As the conflict ensued, the convict took a rock and stoned Bedell and later escaped the scene, while people rushed the victim to a nearby clinic where nurses quickly advised them to take him to the John F. Kennedy Medical Center but he later succumbed to the injury.
Following the legal formality, however, and having listened to the facts and circumstances as well as the guilty plea by Wilson, Judge Roosevelt Willie confirmed the guilty verdict of the jury by committing the defendant to 25 years in jail at the Monrovia Central Prison.
Although murder is a capital offense under the law that requires death penalty, the court said that because defendant Wilson entirely confessed to the crime, it decided to lessen his punishment.
Wilson had earlier informed the police and court that he killed Bedell, and the court also referenced his past criminal records in sentencing him.
LINA
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