Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporter

Three men who shot and killed three people in Olympic Gardens, St Andrew, have been ordered by the Court of Appeal to each serve 40 years in prison before they can be eligible for parole.

In dismissing the appeals of Marlon Johnson, Michael Allison, and Oneil Hamilton, the court said the penalty had to be severe because of the heinous nature of the killings.

The men, who were all labourers, have been in custody since 1998.

They were convicted in the Home Circuit Court in 2004 of the murders of Latanya McDonald, a 21-year-old hairdresser; Desrene Meghoo and Oliver Lawrence.

The men were first convicted of the triple murder in July 2001, but in October 2002, a retrial was ordered because the judge who presided at that trial had failed to direct the jury how to deal with the evidence of hostile witnesses.

The victims were shot dead at their home at 28 Swallow Road, Olympic Gardens, on the night of April 15, 1998.

In July 2006, Johnson, Allison and Hamilton were each sentenced to life imprisonment on the first count and to suffer death as the penalty for the other counts.

The governor general on July 23, 2009, commuted the death sentences to life imprisonment.

The appeal court has ordered that the sentences run from January 2006.