The fate of convicted murderer Antonio Myers hangs in the balance, following an appeal that could see his minimum jail time more than halved.

Jailed for life for his role in the gun murder of Kumi Harford, Myers could see his 38-year minimum sentence cut this week to 15 years.

Puisne Judge Carlisle Greaves acknowledged the decision could provoke public outrage, over a killing depicted by the prosecution as cold-blooded “payback”.

With a slew of murder cases returning to the Supreme Court this week for resentencing, Mr Justice Greaves contemplated dealing with them under one broad judgment.

“I could see similar principles being applied, with adjustments according to the facts of each particular case,” Mr Justice Greaves said.

In 2011, a jury found Myers guilty of the December 5, 2009 murder of Mr Harford, who was shot four times as he sat in a car on St Monica’s Road, Pembroke.

Myers is also serving a concurrent ten-year term for using a firearm to commit an indictable offence.

Director of Public Prosecutions Rory Field, reviewing the facts, called it a surprise attack based solely on the “reckless, senseless and irrational” logic of gang retaliation: that Myers, accompanied an associate, sought to shoot anyone he could find in an area linked to a rival gang.

He said Myers was retaliating for the perceived insult by a member of the 42 gang against a woman whose Middletown home was frequented by an area gang.

Mr Field noted an “allegiance to a warped gang culture” defined the attack.

Mr Harford had no apparent link to the offending incident. His car was pursued and shot at least a dozen times as he tried to escape. Myers was subsequently caught by police while burning clothing that carried gunshot residue and his DNA.

“I don’t think I’m being melodramatic in calling it a murder in cold blood,” Mr Field added.

The DPP suggested the court resentence Myers to a life sentence with 15 years served before he is eligible for parole.

This follows a precedent set by the Privy Council last year in the cases of Ze Selassie and Jermaine Pearman, where sentences for premeditated murder and murder had their minimums set to 25 years and 15 years respectively.

 Defence lawyer Elizabeth Christopher called the prosecution’s theory of how the Kumi Harford murder had unfolded speculative and “preposterous”, saying that Myers may have had an involvement in the killing, but had not been shown to be the one who fired the fatal shots.

“They can convict on the basis that he was an assistant,” Mr Justice Greaves responded. “The Crown could not say who was the shooter — the Crown said there were at least two shooters.”

Myers, who declined to speak in court, continues to maintain his innocence.

Three other prominent murder cases are returning to the courts this week: today sees both Derek Spalding and Kevin Warner back in the dock, while David Cox is up for resentencing on Thursday.

Warner was sentenced to a minimum of 35 years in prison for the 2010 murder of Dekimo (Purple) Martin — while Spalding was ordered to serve a minimum of 38 years on his life sentence for gunning down Shaki Crockwell in 2007.

Cox was sentenced to a minimum of 38 years for the premeditated murder of Troy (Yankee) Rawlins.

Opting to defer the Myers case until Thursday, Mr Justice Greaves said he was prepared to hear all the different arguments in each case and then hand down his decisions later in the week.

“This is a wonderful opportunity, in these circumstances, for this court to look at the picture both individually and widely, and assess for itself,” he said.

The tactic would conserve the court’s time as cases are reviewed in the wake of October’s ruling by the Privy Council.

The 15- and 25-year limits are no guarantee of early release: as Mr Field told the court yesterday, if Myers’ sentence is set to a 15-year minimum, that means simply that “one can start considering whether parole is appropriate or not”.

Yesterday’s hearing for Myers came with a surprise for the defence, as Mr Justice Greaves mulled whether the circumstances of the appeal might permit him to switch the ten-year gun sentence from concurrent to consecutive — thereby adding ten years to Myers’ 15-year minimum. Ultimately, he concluded he could not.

However, the judge observed that the new sentences are being watched sharply by the public — telling Mr Field: “We have a lot of these cases. If for example I did accept the submission that 15 years should be the tariff, or if I did accept the argument of the defence that it should be less, you could understand the kind of outrage Joe Public may have in a case like this.”