They are Rohan McCarty and Ricardo Britton, both of Port Henderson Lane, St Catherine.

Supreme Court judge, Lennox Campbell, in passing sentence Tuesday, ordered McCarty to serve 17 years before he is eligible for parole, while Britton is to serve 14 years before he can be paroled.

The Crown led evidence at the trial in the Home Circuit Court that, early on the morning of September 14, 2004, the men threw gasolene around Pansy Henry's three-bedroom wooden house and lit it with a bottle torch. Henry testified that when the house caught fire, three of her children were burnt to death inside.

They were five-year-old twin boys Tyrique and Tyrone Henry and three-year-old Moesha Lee.

Henry told the court that about 1:15 on the morning of the incident, she heard what sounded like liquid being poured around her house. She said when she looked through a window, she saw the two accused in her yard.

She said she had a dispute with the men the previous day, and that they had threatened to burn her house.

barbara.gayle@gleanerjm.com