Mavado’s Son Dantay Brooks Found Guilty Of Murder

Dantay Brooks, the teenage son of Dancehall deejay Mavado, was found guilty of murder today in the Home Circuit Court and now faces the possibility of a life sentence in prison.

Brooks’ co-accused Andre Hines was also found guilty. Both will be sentenced on March 10th.

Asked if the defense planned to appeal the verdict, Brooks’ attorney-at-law, Peter Champagnie, replied to DancehallMag with an emphatic: “absolutely!”.

Brooks, 18, was also found guilty of illegal possession of firearm and arson in the Home Circuit Court in downtown Kingston today. His co-accused, Andre Hinds, was also found guilty.

The two were arrested and charged in connection with the grisly killing of Lorenzo Thomas in the St Andrew community of Cassava Piece on June 5, 2018.

The defense team for Brooks opted to have a trial by a judge alone, as opposed to a judge and jury.

Justice Leighton Pusey presided over the trial of both men.

Prosecutors led with evidence that Brooks and Hinds were among five men who entered the house and shot Thomas before pushing his father into another room. Thomas’ killers attempted to sever his head, but aborted that plan because the machete was too dull.

They then doused the house and body with gasoline before torching them.

Prosecutors relied on the eyewitness testimony of Thomas’ father, who indicated that he knew his son’s killers from the community.

Two weeks ago, before the start of the trial, Mavado showed his son some love on Instagram with an old photo of them together overlooking the city. “Love you son,” the deejay wrote with prayer hands emojis.

In another post, Mavado also wrote, “The light will shine the dark will be brighter soon.”

The entertainer also released a new song two weeks ago dubbed  Not Perfect, which touched on his son’s trial as well as his own run-ins with the law.  The song has racked up over 912,000 views since its release.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misspelled Dantay Brooks’ first name.