Beheader pleads guilty – Jamaica Observer

TREVOR Taffe, the St. Andrews businessman whose conviction and sentence were overturned by the Court of Appeal in 2022 and set for a retrial, admitted in a surprising twist on Thursday morning that he was in fact guilty of beheading the mother of his child, Nicole Heron, in 2012 and dumping her body in a septic tank.

Taaffe, who was convicted of the killing in July 2016 by a seven-member jury and sentenced to 20 years in prison before becoming eligible for parole, has maintained his innocence from the start, insisting that he loved a woman who was the mother of his child and could never harm her.

In an appeal filed in September 2022, Taaffe, through his attorneys, sought an order to set aside the conviction and set aside his conviction, arguing, among other things, that the judge erred in not upholding a no-case motion made on his behalf and charging that the judge’s findings showed a strong bias against the prosecution. The appellate judges, overturning his conviction and conviction, ordered a retrial in the interest of justice.

The matter, which was later relisted, was scheduled to be heard Wednesday morning before Superior Court Judge Leighton Pusey, but was postponed to Thursday after Taaffe failed to appear. The The Jamaica Observer he was told he did not arrive on the truck with other inmates who were taken to face their cases Wednesday at the Supreme Court in downtown Kingston.

But when he appeared before Judge Pusey on Thursday morning, Taffe, through his lawyer, Leroy Equiano, made a surprise about-face, indicating that he wanted to plead guilty instead. Asked by Judge Pusey if he clearly understood that by deciding to plead guilty he was admitting he had killed Heron and if he was sure that was what he meant, Taaffe said: “Yes.”

His sentence should be announced on February 27 next year.

After the hearing Thursday, Equiano said he couldn’t share with him Observer your client’s reasons for deciding to plead guilty at this time.

In May 2012, the headless remains of 26-year-old Heron were found in a septic tank at Taffe’s home with a slashed vagina and multiple wounds to her neck, a month after she was reported missing. The police also recovered the charred remains of her clothes, the wig she was wearing, as well as her phone and charger. Heron, who was the mother of a six-month-old daughter with Taffe, was last seen by her parents on April 3, 2012, when she was heading to her home in Havendale, St Andrew.

Taffe’s conviction in 2016 was based solely on circumstantial evidence, as nothing linked him to the murder. He, however, said he had reported her missing, but checks revealed that he had only reported two televisions missing from his home. During the trial, Taffe claimed that he dropped Heron off at his home on April 5 in the company of his nephew and a worker. According to him, when he returned the next day, all the people had disappeared along with the televisions.

Taffe has been in custody since 2012.