Donovan Bailey, 33, a farmer of Cambridge district in St Elizabeth, who was found guilty of the murder of his wife, Dahlia Clarke-Bailey, was sentenced to life imprisonment and will not be eligible for parole until after 20 years.

Justice Marjorie Cole-Smith handed down the sentence Friday in the St Elizabeth Circuit Court.

The four-day trial saw the prosecution, comprising Jeremy Taylor and L. Morris, calling seven witnesses for the Crown.

Bailey, in an unsworn statement from the dock, told the court that he did not see his wife two weeks before her death, he had nothing to do with it and he is innocent of the charge.

Unanimous verdict

The 12-member jury retired for 17 minutes and return a unanimous verdict.

Bailey also had three previous convictions in the Black River RM Court registered against him.

Facts of the case are that Clarke got married to the accused at age 16. The two were having domestic problems, after which Clarke left the home in Cambridge and was living elsewhere.

She went missing on October 15, 2005, and could not be located. On October 19, four days later, the police, acting on information, went to the Operation Pride Housing Scheme at Luana in the parish, where they found Dahlia's decomposed body in bushes.

Bailey was represented by attorney-at-law Velma Hylton.

SOURCE: http://www.jamaica-star.com/thestar/20090330/news/news4.html