High Court Judge Carolyn Tie-Powell on Friday slapped a life sentence on child killer Kyodi Satchell, describing the convict’s kidnapping and brutal murder of eight-year-old Danielle Rowe in June last year as “Sheer evil … egregious, heinous, and senseless”.

Thirty-two-year-old Satchell, who had pleaded guilty to the murder, will not be eligible for parole before spending 27 years and four months in prison. She was also given a six-year and three months sentence for the offence of child stealing. Both sentences will run concurrently.

Satchell was booked for child stealing after she abducted Danielle from her school, Braeton Primary in St Catherine, on June 8, 2023.

She is reported to have taken advantage of the trust the little girl had in her and took her to St Andrew, where she kept her for two hours before cutting her throat and leaving her on the street to die. A soldier saw the injured Danielle on the street and took her to hospital. However, she died at hospital on June 10, 2023.

Satchell had confessed that she killed Danielle because the child’s father, with whom she had a relationship, allegedly gave her HIV, which led to her miscarrying a child. She said that on the day she was scheduled to have delivered her baby, she abducted Danielle and killed her because she wanted her father to feel the pain of losing a child as she did.

“To kill a defenceless human being is vile, but to kill an innocent eight-year-old child can only be regarded as evil. Only a sentence of life imprisonment is appropriate for the reprehensible, wicked, callous, and heinous act,” Justice Tie-Powell told Satchell just before handing down the sentences.

Further chiding the convict, the judge told Satchell that her actions were “unnatural”.

“Danielle has had her life taken from her, but her family has been deprived of so much. They will not have the opportunity of seeing her do her Primary Exit Profile exams, selecting a high school, graduating, seeing her become a woman, and seeing her walk down the aisle. The sentence of life imprisonment is a penalty that rests on you for the rest of your life. It serves to punish you, but hopefully [will also] act as a deterrent to those contemplating murder,” the judge said.

Reacting to the sentence, Danielle’s mother, Sudiene Mason, told the Jamaica Observer that the killer got exactly what she deserved.

Mason became very emotional, shedding tears as she explained how her daughter’s murder tore her family apart.

“I am feeling much, much better. She got what she deserved. It’s been very depressing, really, really depressing. I have had sleepless nights because I am used to coming home and seeing Danielle and I am not going to have that ever again.

The murder, Mason said, interrupted her life as well as the lives of her two other children — Danielle’s older sister and her younger brother. Mason shared that she even walked away from her job at Pizza Hut because she found it too difficult to cope with the reality of her child’s murder.

“Danielle’s sister has been very aggressive towards people since the incident. She tends to lock away herself and becomes very aggressive. Her brother doesn’t play much like he used to. He constantly asks for his sister. I always visit the grave; that’s where I go to vent. After Danielle’s murder I lost my mother. They are buried in the same area. Although my mother was sick, she took Danielle’s death to heart,” Mason said, pointing out that she left her job because she was extremely depressed.

Mason took the opportunity to publicly thank Matthew Hyatt, the attorney who represented the family, for always being a source of strength and support. She also thanked the police and the prosecutors who put the case together.

Hyatt, in his reaction to the sentence, said that justice was certainly on display and described the judge’s summation as thorough. He said Satchell’s life sentence was very fitting for the heinous crime she committed against the child.

“It was senseless and, as the judge said, it was very callous to take the life of an eight-year-old. Certainly her mother has gone through so much. To have to bury your own child is something no mother should ever have to do. The sentence is what it is. What is done cannot be undone. It will never bring back the life of Danielle Rowe, but it is one that will send the appropriate message to persons who think to commit these kinds of crime that the justice system will prevail in these kinds of circumstances,” Hyatt said.

During her summation, Justice Tie-Powell outilined that on June 8, 2023 about 8:25 am, Satchell visited Braeton Primary School, where Danielle was a student. She spoke to the security guard, saying that she wanted to take lunch for Danielle. She was taken to the guidance counsellor who asked her to wait a few minutes. She disappeared, and when the guidance counsellor saw her shortly after she said that she had already gotten through.

The security guard said that at 2:05 in the afternoon Satchell returned and was told that school was in session and was asked to wait. There was a change in security shifts at 2:30 pm, which was the same time that classes ended. The relief security guard was told that Satchell was waiting to collect Danielle. The security guard saw Danielle and her brother waiting together under a shed in the schoolyard. The security guard moved from her post and on her return she saw only the boy.

She said she found it strange because Danielle always took her brother with her.

The security guard said she asked for Danielle and was told that she was gone. That triggered a search for the child.

About 4:15 pm, a motorist saw Satchell, followed by Rowe, emerge from a derelict building at 1 Roosevelt Avenue in St Andrew. The child walked into traffic and into the fender of a motor vehicle. The motorist observed that Danielle’s throat had been slit. He took her to Bustamante Hospital for Children and went searching for Satchell but was unsuccessful. He made a report to the police, the judge said, as she read what she termed the facts of the case.

She continued, saying that on August 11, 2023, following investigations and the circulation of a composite photograph of the suspect Satchell was arrested. Analysis of cellphones found at her home revealed that several calls were made to Danielle’s mother between June 6 and June 9, and a single call to her on June 10. All her calls went unanswered. There were also calls to Danielle’s father. On June 9, there were eight calls and on June 10, the day Danielle died, there was a single call.

On September 24, 2024, Satchell pleaded guilty to the offences of murder and child stealing.

She indicated that in 2019 she was involved in a romantic relationship with Danielle’s father. However, the relationship was physically and emotionally abusive and it ended.

They rekindled the relationship for one day and subsequently he left her an ominous message to say if he were her he would get tested for HIV.

She thought it was a ploy and blocked him on social media. She then entered into a new relationship and became pregnant. She was then informed by her doctor that she was HIV-positive. This caused her to contemplate suicide and she was placed on suicide watch.

When her partner’s HIV test returned negative she was convinced that Danielle’s father had deliberately infected her as she had been with no one else in the past few years.

Satchell said she tried desperately to make contact with Danielle’s father but he refused to take her calls. She said she snapped on the day that would have been her expected delivery date as she thought “he should lose his child as I lost mine”.

Satchell said she never intended to hurt the eight-year-old but planned to use her to get her former partner to respond to her. However, neither he nor the mother of the deceased would take her calls.

Having taken Danielle, she said she started to panic because she didn’t know what to do with her. At one point, she contemplated taking her to a police station. She said at one point she went to urinate and Danielle stood in front of her with her back turned. According to her, “Mi see a knife inna di madman area and take it up and mi do it when she was standing”.