35 Year Sentence in Nassau Village Murder Upheld

NASSAU, BAHAMAS – A man jailed for murder has had his conviction upheld, despite his lawyer’s claims that there was no direct evidence linking him to the murder.

Marcello McKenzie was sentenced to 35 years in 2023 for the June 28, 2020 murder of Godfrey Sawyer.

The Court of Appeal found that the circumstantial evidence in the case supported the jury’s findings.

According the evidence, Sawyer was on the porch of his Nassau Village home when he was shot following an exchange with two men.

Following the shooting, the men fled in a white van.

About 30 minutes later, after a short chasr police officers arrested McKenzie and his godbrother Jamal Armbrister in a white van.

They found a .45 pistol in the van, among McKenzie’s plumbing tools.

Ballistic tests confirmed that the gun was the murder weapon.

Sawyer’s cellphone records also showed that McKenzie had called him at 8:25pm and 9:25pm on the night of the murder.

A video also showed Armbrister and McKenzie together in the Nassau Village area before the murder.

McKenzie denied knowledge of the firearm and the murder when questioned by the police. He claimed he was giving Armbrister, who was positively identified as being at the scene, ride.

McKenzie was tried alone as his co-accused was killed in a police-involved shooting in 2022.
McKenzie was represented by Ryszard Humes.