Ninja Man And Co-Convicts Sentenced To Life In Prison For Murder, Entertainer Must Serve 25 Years Before Parole

(Courtesy of our friends at the Gleaner )

Entertainer Ninja Man and his co-con­victs have been sen­tenced to life in prison for the 2009 mur­der of a Kingston man. The enter­tain­er must serve at least 25 years in prison before he is eli­gi­ble to be released on parole. His son Janeil and fel­low co-con­vict Dennis Clayton will each have to serve 15 years behind bars. The sen­tences were hand­ed down by Justice Martin Gayle in the Home Circuit Court a short time ago.

Justice Gayle sen­tenced Ninja Man, whose real name is Desmond Ballentyne, to 25 years at hard labor for the mur­der of Ricardo Johnson, pop­u­lar­ly known as ‘Ricky Trooper,’ and 20 years for shoot­ing with intent in rela­tion to anoth­er per­son. “Thumbs up, judge,” Ninja Man said after his sen­tence was announced. The oth­ers showed no emo­tion. The three were con­vict­ed last month of mur­der and shoot­ing with intent.

Prosecutors Kathy Pyke and Nicholas Edmund led evi­dence, dur­ing the five-week tri­al, that the killing stemmed from a domes­tic alter­ca­tion in the St Andrew com­mu­ni­ty of Lower Mall Road. According to pros­e­cu­tors, there was an alter­ca­tion on the day before Johnson was killed. Ninja Man, his son, and Clayton report­ed­ly returned the fol­low­ing day with guns and oth­er weapons. They chased Johnson and anoth­er wit­ness through a fence, and as Johnson tried to fend off the attack­ers, shots were fired, and he was hit in the side.

He lat­er died.

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Kudos to Judge Martin Gayle, who did not allow star­dom to influ­ence the deci­sion he made; at the end of the day, some­one lost his life, and some­one killed him.
In a coun­try in which mur­der is at an all-time high and climb­ing, I salute this judge for stay­ing focused and not allow­ing him­self to be influ­enced by that stardom.
This is not about whether one likes the con­vict­ed mur­der­er Desmond Ballentine O/​c Ninjaman; it comes down to the rule of law.
We need a soci­ety in which jus­tice is objec­tive, a soci­ety in which the scales of jus­tice are not swayed one way or the oth­er by who the accused is or who he knows but that he will be judged on the evi­dence against him.

For years, dance­hall has been an incu­ba­tor for vio­lence and vio­lent lyrics.
As a con­se­quence, many with­in the cul­ture have been named as sus­pects in all man­ner of crim­i­nal activ­i­ties, includ­ing mur­der. Whether it’s life imi­tat­ing art or art imi­tat­ing life, dance­hall has been an out­let for the youth much the same way it has been a neg­a­tive medi­um of indoc­tri­na­tion into doing wrong.
I urge oth­er judges to do their part in help­ing to stem this mur­der mad­ness, as Judge Martin Gayle has.