Above: Vybz Kartel

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Dancehall star Vybz Kartel was sentenced to life imprisonment by a Jamaican court on Thursday.

Kartel and his three co-defendants all received a life sentence. Kartel was sentenced following a murder conviction last month by a 10-1 verdict.

It will be 35 years before Kartel is eligible for parole.

“I think that the crime was savage and the sentence was appropriate for the crime,” Jamaican-American attorney David P Rowe told Caribbean Journal. “We cannot give celebrities any particular preference. It seems to have been a peculiarly painful crime and inconsistent with the religious traditions of Jamaica.”

Kartel, whose real name is Adidja Palmer, was a controversial figure in Jamaica whose drawn-out trial divided much of the country.

He was convicted for his role in the deadly beating of Clive “Lizard” Williams at Kartel’s home in Jamaica in 2011, along with three other defendants.

He was involved in another murder trial in 2013, although he was found not guilty in the murder of Barrington Burton, a businessman in Jamaica.