UPDATE: Hamilton to appeal, God answers prayer, says mom

Valerie Neita-Robertson, the attorney for former policeman Rushon Hamilton, has served notice that she plans to appeal his sentence and conviction.

Hamilton was sentenced to life imprisonment today in relation to the 2008 murder of schoolgirl Jhaneel Goulbourne.

In handing down sentence, Supreme Court judge, Justice Lloyd Hibbert, ordered that Hamilton serve 35 years before the possibility of parole.

Speaking with The Gleaner/Power 106 News Centre this afternoon, Hamilton’s mother Christiana Grant Hayman said she was relieved by the life sentence as she feared that her son would have been sentenced to be hanged.

"God answers prayer," said Grant Hayman. "The only thing is [that] he [is] gone to prison innocently."

The prosecution had pushed for the death penalty, but the judge said the case was not categorised as extreme and so the death penalty would not be appropriate.

The former policeman was convicted for the murder last October.

The crown argued that Goulbourne went missing after a report was made that Hamilton sexually molested her on October 4, 2008, at the Elletson Road Police Station in Kingston.

Several prosecution witnesses testified that while they were in custody with Hamilton, he confessed that he shot the teenager and dumped her body at sea in 2008.

However, in his unsworn statement Hamilton denied any involvement in the murder.

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