Prosecutors yesterday failed to increase the sentence meted out to convicted murderers Vernon Simons and Shannon Tucker for the $450,000 drugs plot that led them to kill Matthew Clarke.

Simons, 25, is already serving a life sentence for the murder, along with his accomplices Tucker, 34, and Kyle Sousa, 19.

The Clarke murder trial heard in April 2009 how construction company boss Tucker and his employee, Simons, blamed Mr. Clarke for allegedly framing them over approximately 18 lbs (8,176 grams) of cannabis and 584 ecstasy tablets discovered by the authorities in a shipment of machine parts for Tucker's business.

The trio bludgeoned the father-of-two over the head with a metal pole and stabbed him 26 times before leaving him dead in bed at his home in North Shore Road, Pembroke, in April 2008. Prosecutors told the jury the murder stemmed from the fact that the drug importation plot was busted three months earlier.

Tucker and Simons were said to have blamed 31-year-old Mr. Clarke for them being caught out, and roped in Sousa to help kill him. Tucker admitted his role in the drugs conspiracy during defence evidence in the murder trial.

Simons continued to protest his innocence over that issue, but was convicted by a jury after another trial in May 2009.

Later that year, Puisne Judge Charles Etta Simmons handed both men eight year sentences for the drugs plot, to run concurrent to their life sentences for the killing.

Yesterday, prosecutor Takiyah Burgess asked the Court of Appeal to increase the eight-year sentences meted out over the drugs plot. She suggested a more appropriate sentence would be in the range of ten to 14 years.

The appeal was contested by defence lawyers Shade Subair, for Simons, and Elizabeth Christopher, for Tucker.

The panel of three Court of Appeal judges opted to uphold the original sentences after considering submissions from both sides.