Men who pleaded guilty to murder of Westminster phone card vendor get 13 and 14 years

Ron Mansfield

Alexander La Cruz and Mark Welch—the two men who pleaded guilty to the murder of Westminster phone card vendor Ron Mansfield back in 2018—have been sentenced to 13 and 14 years in prison respectively.

Underscoring the senseless nature of the killing, fuelled by greed, Justice Simone Morris-Ramlall lamented the manner in which Mansfield  who was plying his trade to make an honest living, met his end.

At their arraignment earlier this month, the jointly-charged La Cruz and Welch pleaded guilty to the capital charge; accepting that on the day in question, it was they who murdered the 37-year-old father of two.