Roland Welcome and Antascio Rankine Sentenced For Firearm Possession & Conspiracy To Murder Sven Brett Connor

By Alric Lindsay

On December 19, 2025, Roland Welcome and Antascio Rankine appeared via video link in the Grand Court to be sentenced for conspiracy to murder Sven Brett Connor and possession of an unlicensed firearm.  Justice Richards gave Welcome 10 years for conspiracy to commit murder and 12 years for unlicensed firearm possession. Rankine received 12 years and 3 months for conspiracy to commit murder and 15 years and 3 months for unlicensed firearm possession.  Their sentences will run concurrently rather than consecutively.

The sentences were broken down as follows:

Rankine

Welcome

Third charge

In addition to conspiracy and firearm possession, the prosecution argued that there was a third charge of murder that should “lie in file” even though it was never pursued at trial and crossed out on an amended indictment.

The prosecution explained that the original indictment had three counts. He indicated that when the Director of Public Prosecutions amended the indictment to delete the murder count, the DPP was simply indicating that the Crown sought trial on an extract of that indictment, namely the conspiracy count and the firearms count. The prosecution added that the murder count was never quashed and there was no application to quash it. He initially concluded that the murder charge should remain on file indefinitely and should not be proceeded with without the leave of the court.

Prathna Bodden and Clayton Phuran, defence attorneys for Welcome and Rankine, argued that it was not the case that an extract of the indictment was presented to the court. Instead, they contended that the murder charge was struck out and no longer existed, as demonstrated by the amended indictment. Therefore, the only charges that existed were conspiracy to commit murder and firearm possession.  The defence attorneys argued that it was unfair to Welcome and Rankine to have an unpursued murder charge hanging over their heads indefinitely, as suggested by the prosecution.

After hearing from counsels, Justice Richards determined that the unpursued murder charge will remain on the file for one year and will not be proceeded with unless leave of the court is given.

Note to readers

The case raises interesting questions about foreign practices that may be imported into the Cayman Islands courts in relation to how long unpursued matters may remain on a defendant’s file.

In this matter, the overseas counsel instructed by the Crown initially suggested that the usual terms in the jurisdiction in which he practices be applied in cases where a count was not pursued at trial. Accordingly, his initial view was that the unpursued murder count should lie in file indefinitely and should not be proceeded against the defendant without the leave of the court.

However, the defence attorneys noted that nothing should be left in the defendant’s file because the indictment was clearly amended with the murder charge removed and signed off by the DPP. Accordingly, what was presented to the Grand Court was not an extract of the indictment, but, instead, final charges.

Although Justice Richards ruled that the unpursued murder count will remain on the defendant’s file for one year, the question remains unanswered as to what it means when a charge is crossed out or deleted from an indictment by the DPP and presented to defence attorneys.  Is the charge discontinued, or is the crossing out simply an indication of what the DPP would pursue at the relevant time, leaving the crossed-out items open indefinitely for future prosecution by the DPP?

For our previous story on this case, please see the link below.

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