Jason Bruce Lawrence sentenced to life for murder of common-law wife

Jason Bruce Lawrence

There is a conviction for murder. After several hours of deliberation by a jury of seven women and five men, the fate of thirty-seven year old Jason Bruce Lawrence was sealed; life in prison.  Lawrence was charged for the murder of his common-law-wife, forty year old Mercedes Carrillo, back in December of 2009 and today the then resident of Japan Area in Ladyville was convicted of the murder of Carrillo. When he was initially arrested, Lawrence pleaded guilty to the charge after giving a caution statement to police confessing to the crime. But it was not accepted by the then Chief Magistrate and he was committed to stand trial. Lawrence was remanded to the Hattieville Prison until earlier this week when the trial began. Evidence presented showed that following a domestic dispute, Lawrence returned to Carrillo’s house in Burrell Boom, broke down the front door and stabbed her several times—to the abdomen and breast. Carillo’s children, Diana and Christopher, attempted to stop Lawrence from killing their mother.  Diana took away the knife from Lawrence and stabbed him once to the shoulder and that’s when he left the house. But Carrillo did not survive the attack and succumbed to her injuries minutes later. As many as eight persons testified today in court including Lawrence’s brother. Lawrence’s attorney, Oscar Selgado, said that his client acted in jealousy and he did not mean to kill Carrillo because when he stabbed her multiple times, he was under the influence of crack cocaine and he was drunk. But Lawrence was convicted of murder in the courtroom of Justice Troadio Gonzalez. Prosecutor for the trial was Leeroy Banner.