The "cold-hearted" killer of Bermudian Garrow Lightbourn Jr. is appealing his 20 to 40 year jail term.

Cornell R. (Henny) Shawell filed papers at Montgomery County Court in Pennsylvania yesterday claiming the sentence he was given last week for gunning down his 26-year-old cousin was "excessive".

His victim's father, Garrow Lightbourn Sr., of Smith's, told The Royal Gazette last night that he was shocked by the sentence, which is the maximum possible for third-degree murder in the States. But he said his nephew, who has previous convictions including for a weapons offence, should leave it up to the "mercy of the court".

"The courts, they gave him what they felt he needed because he had prior," he said. "If he is meant to be sorry, why does he have all of those convictions? There is a pattern. That's why they sentenced him to 20 years."

The heart-broken father, who like his son is known as Trevor, said of Shawell: "He is still a good guy. I don't hate him as a person, just what he has done to the family."

Belco worker Mr. Lightbourn, 51, who wept throughout last week's sentencing hearing, told this newspaper: "I was crying because we were not losing one family member but two.

"I was also crying for the children of them both. That really hurt me too. Trevor's children are not going to know their dad. Cornell has an eight-month-old baby too.

"Some of the tears were for my son, some were for Cornell. I think he needs help. I just wanted him to get the help he needs. He needs to get rehabilitated. If he gets less time and more help, I would rather that."

Court documents filed by Shawell's lawyer Gabriel Levin yesterday claim that Judge Thomas C. Branca did not consider all mitigating factors in his favour and that the sentence should be reduced.

Mr. Levin indicated that a psychiatrist would testify "about the effect of not taking prescription medication during the incident".

Prosecutor Jesse King is expected to challenge the request to reduce Shawell's sentence. Mr. King argued for a sentence of 26 to 52 years in prison for Shawell, claiming the 30-year-old gunman didn't learn a lesson from previous scrapes with the law and could not be rehabilitated. The judge has not yet scheduled a hearing on Shawell's request.

Sentencing Shawell, he described him as "cold-hearted" and said he made excuses for murdering his cousin rather than showing true remorse.

Shawell pleaded guilty to charges of third-degree murder, possessing an instrument of crime and flight to avoid apprehension in connection with the slaying of Mr. Lightbourn at 10 p.m. on January 27 last year.

The judge gave him the maximum sentence for the murder, along with three-and-a-half to seven years for the fleeing charge and two-and-a-half to five years for the gun charge, both to run concurrently with the 20 to 40 year term.

The prosecution said the shooting, which happened outside a home in the Bright Hope community of Pottstown, near Philadelphia, was the culmination of a long-standing feud between the men about money.

Mr. Lightbourn, a former student of Elliot Primary, Whitney Institute and CedarBridge Academy, who moved from Bermuda to Pottstown, near Philadelphia, in 2007 to be with relatives, died from a gunshot wound to the chest inflicted by a .38 calibre revolver.

He had become a father for the second time just weeks before he was killed; his daughter lives in the States and his toddler son from a previous relationship is on the Island.

Shawell's lawyer argued at the sentencing hearing that Shawell was threatened by Mr. Lightbourn on numerous occasions leading up to the shooting.

The lawyer implied his client, father to two young daughters, suffered from anxiety and depression, which might have predisposed him to reacting the way he did.