A High Court judge in Barbados sentenced Shawayne Williams to 38 years and 138 days in prison on Tuesday for the 2017 murder of Tavon Alleyne, the cousin of National Hero and global superstar Rihanna. Justice Laurie-Anne Smith-Bovell told the court that judges must play a central role in curbing gun violence and protecting the public as she handed down the punishment at Barbados Prisons Dodds.
Williams had been unanimously found guilty by a jury of murdering Alleyne, who was killed near the defendant’s Eden Lodge, St Michael home on Boxing Day in 2017. The court heard that Alleyne arrived in a taxi that stopped on the main road sometime around seven pm, and gunshots rang out after he got out. Alleyne was found on the ground with multiple gunshot wounds.
The sentencing gave weight to evidence that tied Williams to the scene. An eyewitness identified him as a man running away, while another witness said he had been on the block earlier that evening but was gone when the shots were fired and returned shortly after. Smith-Bovell said there was some element of premeditation and planning, that Alleyne had been ambushed and was unarmed, and that the shooting appeared to be revenge for an earlier shooting of Williams by someone.
The judge said the firearm was never recovered and that the offence was committed in public, putting members of society at risk of serious injury. She set a 39-year starting point, then added two years for Williams’ poor presentence report, high risk of reoffending, previous convictions for serious bodily harm and assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and use of illegal drugs. Williams was credited six months for delay and had 774 days spent on remand deducted from the total.
Smith-Bovell said the courts had a duty to protect the public from gun violence and that public concern over illegal firearms and the need for general deterrence had to be reflected in sentences. She said the sentence was meant to serve the public interest. Along with the prison term, she ordered Williams to enroll in programs to build basic academic and vocational skills and in psychotherapeutic rehabilitative programs the psychologist or psychiatrist considers necessary.
The case has drawn added attention because Alleyne was Rihanna’s cousin, but the sentence also lands in a wider debate over shootings and illegal guns in Barbados. Williams will serve his term at Barbados Prisons Dodds, where the court placed him after concluding the killing was planned, public and dangerous enough to warrant a long custodial sentence.