Father: “38 Years Is Not Enough For A Life”
Convicted murderer Derek Spalding should have got more than 38 years, said the victim’s father Danny Crockwell this afternoon [Mar.7]. Mr Spalding was sentenced to life in prison today and must serve 38 years before he will be eligible for parole.
Earlier this month Mr Spalding was found guilty of the murder of Shaki Crockwell, who was found dead on the Railway Trail in Devonshire on 24th August 2007. The trial began on January 24th, with the jury hearing that Mr Spalding shot the victim as he owed him money from selling drugs.
Speaking after the sentencing today Danny Crockwell said, “He set Shaki up. He took Shaki. For what…$8,000? Justice has been served yes, but he needed to get more than 38 years.
“I hope he rots in jail. But – he got 38 years, believe me, the Almighty will give him more than that when he goes there. He is going to have to deal with the Father.
Pointing to the sky, Mr Crockwell said, “You can’t go there for murder. He will say ‘I gave you life. I didn’t give you life to take life.
“He got 38 years, but that’s not enough for a life. You don’t take nobodies life,” said Mr Crockwell. When asked what sentence he should have received, the victim’s father replied, “They should have gave him 45 years, minimum 45 years without parole.”
Mr Crockwell also suggested Mr Spalding should have to finish the prison time owed on his previous sentence, and then start serving this sentence. In 1996, Mr Spalding was sentenced to 28 years in prison on armed robbery charges, one of which saw a man shot. He served 11 of the 28 years, and was released in 2007.
“Shaki is never coming back, but life moves on. He will always be in my heart, can’t take that away from me,” said Mr Crockwell.
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- Derek Spalding Eligible For Parole After 25 Yrs | Bernews.com | September 19, 2014
Life should be life! But this is Bermuda so what else do you expect???
dude 38 yrs is a long time. u need to move on. besides if u knew what your son was doing did u try to stop him? i wonder who showed him about the game?
if someone is selling drugs he could end in jail or shot. thats how the game goes!
and i know u know this.
I totally agree with you he thought justice was served a few weeks ago now he is crying the blues. Move on Dude this is BDA.
When you decide to sell drugs or join a gang, you might as well thank your lucky stars every morning when you wake up ALIVE. As a drug dealer/gang member…a player of the game, you are living on borrowed time. You know this when you get into it. You know this when your children get into it. Why are drug dealers/gang members and their families surprised when they get shot? It’s not a matter of getting shot/killed, it’s a matter of WHEN. Yet people continue to play the game willingly. SMH!
dis is d guys son.. of course he wants more time … u want him be happy.. if my son got murdered i aint satisfied till the convicted is dead.. str8.. 38 years not enough for murder. rip shak realyout.
Agreed, 38 years is not enough. Neither is 45 years. How many years is enough, I don’t know, nor do I know how anyone can take a life. That is beyond my comprehension.
It’s crazy though that Mr. Spalding only served 11 of 28 years of his previous sentence? What kind of nonsense is that? Perhaps Shaki would still be alive if that was not allowed to happen?
R.I.P. Shaki… hope they got the right guy, only God knows…
Totally agree with you…how many years is enough?!! I also too hope they got the right man…this conviction was based on what evidence????? NONE!!
Oh now he the Father is singing another song i thought he said just the other day Jah took care of him. Daaaaaaaa!!!!!! So what’s the problem now?
Irony is, Danny says/said after the judgment that he felt that justice was done et al.
Funny eh?
ya cause the guy was convicted ya loser… he wasnt sentenced yet.. smoke some herb rummy
If you are an ex-con, a drug dealer and you steal money from other drug dealers – guess what??? You are probably going to get shot.
“If you live by the sword, you die by the sword”
LOL 38 WERENT ENOUGH BUT 45 IS WATS 7 YRS AND GET OFF D CAMERA LMAWO LAYDOWN DANNY POTS THEY AINT PROVE HE DID YET U N I BOTH KNOW HE DIDNT
JUST INCASE BERNEWS DNT PUT UP DAT LAST COMMENT 38 NOT ENOUGH BUT 45 IS U FUNNY BRA
Leave the man to mourn in any manner he prefers – what he is doing is legal and you haven’t walked a second in his shoes..
What an insensitive bunch you are..
Did you forget his son was selling hard core drugs on our streets????? Not saying that justifies him being shot but let’s not forget what this was all about – dishonesty in the drug trafficking “business.” No one involved in this whole disgrace is innocent. Truth.
“Ole” while he has the RIGHT to mourn..others have the right to comment as they see fit..yes it was wrong for Spalding to kill Shaki and leave his two sons fatherless but it was also wrong for Shaki to be selling drugs to other peoples sons and daughters as well as he has also contributed to detroying others lives. Did he deserve to die? No he didn’t but Mr. Spalding has to answer to his own demons.. he doesn’t have to answer to anyone else..38 years IS a long time and it won’t bring Shaki back..neither will the 45 years that Mr. Potts felt that he deserved….I am actually shocked at the sentence that he received because I thought he would have gotten less time…
all i kno,,i jus hope that was the right guy bein justice was served!
Danny , when he goes up for parole in 38yrs , make sure you are there to give a victim impact statement , that way he’ll be denied for at least another 7yrs .
Well after following this case anyone could go jail for murder! Just get someone to testify saying you did it and you’re in the slammer! Never heard of such ignorance!!!!! Show me some DNA evidence and i’ll believe it….People cannot base their judgement on previous convictions,he say she say….or the media for that matter! People change…..Until then an innocent man is in jail along with probably many other innocent people! Justice will TRULY be served in due season! God’s got it B)
This system is not working, it only forms an environment that breeds more criminal thinking…even after 11 years spalding was not a better man coming out of the system and obviously was not afraid to go back into what looks to be his life as he knows it. With no fear of the punishment there is no punishment. And let us not forget who is paying for this, certainly none of the drug sales. 80 thousand times 28 years 2.24 million dollars of tax payers money that would be better spent on education for a lot of kids. What a waste.
Agree 110%
Convicts get a the best criminal education up at westgate. There are certain inmates up in there that the gang members hold soooo much reverence to that they literally call them king or daddy. When the new gang members get in there they start their education with there idols. These idols they have are 100 times worse than the ones recently put in & make the others look like mother goose. I really hope these ones don’t ever get out because if they do they I can’t see them doing anything but picking up where they left off.
Right now, Westgate has some dangerous deadly men inside, and on top of that is One Big Time Killer, who is possible guilty of more murders.
Guards don’t let your guard down, serious.
To the youth out there, Stop the nonsense!!! You don’t want to be there
I want to first say that I cannot and do not condone the senseless violence being carried out to any degree in this island of ours by these gang members, thugs, hood rats, or as I say, idiots, who haven’t accumulated anymore brains than they were born with.
However, with that being said it just amazes me that every time we have a killing, there is an outcry by family over their child being shot and or killed. Not from the standpoint of a life being lost, this is expected (I would do the same), but from the standpoint of “not my child” …… This phrase is often followed by “he was a good child.”
This seems to be the common theme by parents, and then you have massive out cry for justice to be carried out…
1. from the family who wants the murderer caught and prosecuted to the full extent of the law and
2. by his “associates” (gang members) as they have been labeled by our local newspaper who wants to seek justice by now killing a member of the opposing gang.
My issue in this article is with the outcry of the family over the “Good Child.”
Let’s really take a look at this…
• So many parents use this phase as they go off to work days and their “good child” remains loitering on the neighborhood wall with his boys or spending the day hanging at his mate’s house.
• So many parents watch their “good child” brings money into the house and buy items like flat-screen TVs when they have no jobs.
• So many parents see their “good child” from a young age dress in the designer jeans and sneakers wearing tons of gold and diamonds but yet again know very well they have no jobs.
• So many parents drive past their “good child” hang out at the local wall when they leave home and then again, when they return hours later… but say nothing.
• So many parents can smell the scent of marijuana on their “good child” but say nothing to warn about the dangers of drugs and its trade.
• So many parents see their “good child” associate with what can only be deemed as shady characters but offer no guidance about choosing your friends wisely.
• So many parents watch their “good child” come home with all sorts of gang tattoos like “MOB” and ”42” but never take the time to say that these affiliations usually result in a stint in the local lockup.
I say that to say this…. When the “good child” is doing these sorts of things where is the outcry from parents then? Where is the mother crying and pleading… where is the absent father who wants to hold banners high in protest once a life is taken? Where is the energy that is given to arranging marches through town that could have been used on raising the child? Where are the cries’s for the community to help the “Good Child” before they gets to this stage?
Folks we really need wise up. The raising of a child is not to be left to the streets, the older thugs, drug dealers or the justice system, but it starts at home with the parents and extended families.
Parents stop ignoring the signs and turning the other cheek! Check your child, talk to you child, correct your child. Exercise the discipline that is required to help these children to live a decent life.
In days gone by the villages raised the child… I know you know what I am talking about. When your neighbors, teachers and so on would correct you and then when you got home you had more correction from your parents!
Folks we need to listen to the teachers when they say your child is unruly and should be corrected instead of wanting to go and attack the teachers at school!
Look at the signs ….. they are so oblivious… Folks turn off the Hip Hop videos for a while and help them read a book! Help them with home work. Take them to constructive events.
Turn back the clock to the times where there was discipline in the homes and schools… correct your children as they grow up and then in most cases the court will not have to correct them when they turn 18.
Parents, it’s not easy, I know, but start your pleading not with the justice system but at home with you own young child. Talk to them, teach them, guide them and love them. Then maybe we will be able to honestly say “not my child… he is a good child”!
The “good child” thing I agree is part of the problem but how about the “good costumer”
Just as parents of their “good child” need to wake up those who receive huge payment for goods in their store from someone with a wad of cash wrapped with an elastic band from their “good costumer” need to wake up also. If you people keep living in denial its their fault if eaten by the crocodile.
Cayman’s gang problem is way worse than ours but I must give them props for legislating a change. They are fed up & fighting back with zero sympathy while some on island seem to have remorse for our gang members.
Here are two examples of Caymans fight back that are very similar to suggestions some of us shoot down without any thought.
http://caymannewsservice.com/crime/2011/09/29/police-id-13-local-gangs
http://caymannewsservice.com/crime/2011/11/10/gangs-targeted-new-law
If these laws Cayman has put in place work while Bermuda does nothing but sympathizes than they deserve our IB & tourist. I have sympathy for the poison takers but none for the poison sellers.
Greetings to all!! It is easy to formulate opinions and what not, because of our human nature. We even tend to overlook being in the same positions ourselves at any point of time. Justice systems are supposed to run without bias, and are regulated through its own set of rules. There’s forensic evidence and there’s circumstantial evidence. This case lacked sufficient forensic evidence(meaning they never had any forensic evidence to convict on), which is why there was a need for the witnesses claiming of his “confessions”. The judge in the case had branded this murder as, the first of its kind and unique. If we all take time to remember back to the time this happened, before all the tit for tat shootings, this murder was almost, if not, the next high profile crime after the murder of Shaundae Jones, which they never got a conviction. On these occasions, it leaves the BPS, the victims families and also the people of Bermuda feeling frustrated, confused and also in fear. It’s been years now and many dead later, but as individuals put into positions to make a difference, do we do anything necessary to get these perpetrators off the streets??!! Including police,, jurors and anybody else feeling the same burden?? Point is…the police were at the scene, took all their evidence, then made reports, to the media n also victims family. In Bermuda, with all the technology now, families are finding out details surrounding deaths from blackberry, facebook and any other tool used by pokey Bermudian people in their own selfish ways. Who didn’t know the victim was caught with his pants down? And even after it all happened there was a story about a girl that lured him and performed oral sex or something. Never the less, let’s sit and think for a minute, the witness statements were made at least 3 years after the murder. Initially made by a career criminal who after getting shot and thinking he was going to die months after he initially thought he may die, made a statement claiming these things.. The facts had already happened..there may have been motive, he may have been afforded opportunity to travel on the Spirit along with his checkered past and the details of the crime scene,, the only facts in this case. Randy was in hiding from the MOB in somerset and still is, so the possibilities of him being creative with the help of the BPS may have received the 100,000 reward in this case, which will keep him for a while, not including his last 100,000 he got when he was almost blown away! And in that case was a hung jury the 1st time round and Randy had said he saw who shot him. So the travesty in this case is a bit much, especially as it “opens up a new can of worms”. Could the police have helped him create a statement based on certain facts in the surrounding details? And how bout the father of mr Spalding? Even after Randy made his claim it was not enough for a conviction against Spalding
g, so after an altercation between the 2 Spalding men, in fear or frustration the father is awarded an alternative,,, to be just as creative with the BPS as was Randy. This now is cooberating evidence. Exactly what they needed in this situation to get a conviction. Its always pleasing as an upstanding citizen that tries doing his part, to see justice being served, but it has to be done right. In this case I think Justice has been let down along with many people in Bermuda. And to all the people that want to be critical and judgemental, please just recognise there are plenty of innocent people locked away past and present, let’s just hope you or someone you love, like your child, are not the next victims of injustice.
You all make me smile. I bet your tunes would change as far as because he sold drugs he asked for/deserved what he got! I bet if one of those white boys selling weed @ Saltus got shot for not paying their supplier ( black of course) it would be an island wide uproar. Shaki was doing something illegal and for that he deserved to be dealt with by the law not murder. Selling weed and being in a gang are to different things and aren’t both considered living by the sword.