Magistrate Melissa Robertson-Ogle on Thursday granted $50,000 bail each to four miners charged with break and enter after they were allegedly caught in a secured building at the Omai Gold Mines site in the Essequibo River.
Kenneth Adolph, 43, of 85 B Half Mile Wismar, Linden; Roland Walters, 35, of Pouderoyen, West Bank Demerara; Charles Mason, 40, of 169 Half Mile, Wismar and Charles Copeland, 26, of Lot 3 Soesdyke, East Bank Demerara denied the allegation when they appeared in the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court on Thursday.
Reports are that around 1.30 am on Sunday, the company’s security officer and several ranks from the Police Tactical Services Unit (TSU) were on duty when they received information from the computer operator that seven men, acting in a suspicious manner, were spotted on camera. Acting on this information, Omai’s security personnel proceeded to the refinery where it was observed that the two padlocks had been wrenched off and the door was open. Reports are that they also noticed that the security camera in the building was turned in a different direction and seven men were in the building. An alarm was raised and the ranks managed to catch four of them.
Police, in a press release, had said that during the efforts to arrest the men, one of them, 37-year-old Garfield Wintz, of Graham Street, Plaisance, was shot in the right shoulder. He is currently a patient at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation.
Attorney-at-law Sonny Sarawan entered an appearance for Adolph and Copeland. The others appeared without counsel at Thursday’s hearing. Sarawan told the court that his clients were walking in “a dump” which is an abandoned area, when TSU ranks held them after they assisted in picking up a man who was lying on the ground, with a gunshot wound. He said the man was shot under unknown circumstances but his clients were kept in custody without any explanation. He said too that while in police custody statements were taken from his clients.
Sarawan added that the refinery that is being referred to has been closed for some time now. “They couldn’t get evidence from the person they held so they held these four,” he said, adding that his clients were too far away to break into the refinery. He said too that the cameras photographed a large area and anyone near the refinery could be recorded.
Sarawan further said his clients are family men and are not flight risks. He then asked for bail to be granted in a reasonable sum since the matter will have to be tried at Bartica. He said due to this incident his clients could not spend the holidays with their families and “they are hard working people.”
Police Prosecutor Denise Griffith did not oppose bail though she asked for it to be granted in a substantial sum. She said that the men were picked up because of the images on the surveillance camera.
After listening to the arguments the magistrate set the matter for January 21 at the Bartica Magistrate’s Court.
