KINGSTON, Jamaica — A high-profile double murder case involving the infant daughter of a sitting Jamaican parliamentarian and the child’s mother has moved a step closer to trial after last-minute plea bargain negotiations fell apart Thursday at the Jamaican Supreme Court.
Accused Leoda Bradshaw, a former culinary specialist with the United States Navy, had signaled through her legal team earlier Thursday that she was prepared to enter a guilty plea to non-capital murder charges, a classification laid out under Section 2(2) of Jamaica’s Offences Against the Person Act. This section of the statute carves out non-capital murder as any unlawful killing that does not fall into the narrow category of capital murder — which includes contract killings and murders committed during terrorist acts. Unlike capital murder convictions, which carry a mandatory death sentence in Jamaica, a conviction on non-capital murder gives judges discretion to hand down either a life sentence or a fixed multi-year prison term, with a mandatory 15-year minimum period that must be served before an inmate is eligible for parole.
Despite Bradshaw’s willingness to accept a guilty plea to the reduced charges, prosecution and defense teams failed to reach a binding agreement that would have resolved the case without a full public trial. The collapse of these talks clears the path for the high-profile proceeding to move forward through the court system. A plea and case management hearing has already been scheduled for June 24, where judicial officers will finalize pre-trial logistics and, critically, set an official start date for the trial.
Bradshaw is not the only accused in the case. She faces a total of eight criminal charges: two counts each of conspiracy to commit murder, conspiracy to kidnapping, kidnapping, and capital murder. She is jointly charged alongside her cousin Roland Balfour, alleged gunman David Smith, and Bjorn Black. All three of her co-accused have already entered guilty pleas in the case and are currently serving their court-ordered sentences.
The case dates back to September 9, 2023, when 27-year-old Toshyna Patterson and her 10-month-old daughter Serayah Paulwell — the child of prominent Jamaican parliamentarian Phillip Paulwell — were reported missing. According to official prosecution filings, the pair were abducted and transported to the remote Warieka Hills area of St Andrew parish, where they were fatally shot before their bodies were burned to cover up the crime.