Five persons were remanded on a charge of robbery under arms when they appeared before Magistrate Hazel Octive-Hamilton in the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court yesterday.
Francesca Garraway, 33, of 36 D’Urban and John streets, Lodge; Aldhren Adonis, 28, of 941 Grove Housing Scheme, East Bank Demerara; Kefa Small, 17, of 74 Campbellville Housing Scheme; Kenneth Jackson, 17, of 58 Duncan Street, Campbellville and Terron Squires of 242 Gordon Street, Kitty allegedly robbed Sherwin Gasper on February 14 of $842,100 worth of office equipment at gunpoint. They were not required to plead to the charge.
Garraway, Small, Jackson and Squires were previously charged for the same offence on February 27 while Adonis was also charged on March 17.
Those charges were withdrawn and a joint charge was instituted against them.
Garraway, Adonis and Jackson were represented by attorney-at-law Adrian Thomas who said in his application for bail that he could not understand how the five were reconnected to the robbery.
He said that Jackson is currently missing exams at school and is not a flight risk. However a birth certificate to prove the age of the accused was not produced. This was the same situation for Small who was represented by Euclin Gomes. Gomes had presented a signed affidavit in the place of a birth certificate but the magistrate did not accept it.
Police prosecutor Desiree Fowler in response to both attorneys said that the majority of the stolen items were found at the home of Garraway, a former employee of the virtual complainant. Adonis was said to have been positively identified as the gunman and Squires was reportedly the ‘watchman’ during the robbery. She said that she has a different address for Jackson and articles were also found at Small’s home.
The prosecutor objected to bail.
Gomes rebutted saying that the account given by the prosecution should not be taken into consideration for bail since a person’s constitutional rights mean he is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
Magistrate Hamilton told Gomes that he was not bound by her ruling since there are higher courts. She then remanded all the accused until April 4.
