A father of two and a mechanic who are accused of the manslaughter of electrician, Ardell Haynes were remanded to prison yesterday when they appeared before Acting Chief Magistrate Melissa Robertson at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court.
The two, forty-eight-year-old Ordock Reid of 1969 Blue Mountain Road, Festival City and Keith Binns also know as `Boogy’ of A 76 East La Penitence, who stood in the dock with blank expressions on their faces, were not required to plead to the indictable charge of manslaughter.
It is alleged that on December 9, Reid and Binns unlawfully killed the 43-year-old South Ruimveldt resident, Haynes.
Prosecutor Denise Griffith objected to Reid’s and Binns’s bail application on the grounds that the two might not return to court if their conditional freedom was granted.
The magistrate subsequently ordered that both Reid and Binns be remanded to prison and transferred the case to Court Two for January 27.
“I getting bail, what about de bail?” questioned Binns as he was being escorted out of the court by a policeman.
The court was told that the charge was initially murder but upon seeking advice from the Chambers of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) it was reduced to manslaughter.
Reid was hailed a local hero in July, 2006 when he had plunged into a cesspit at Tucville to rescue five-year-old Briana Dover, though she did not survive. He was one of the four men initially held for the fatal beating of Haynes, but released when the 72 hours permitted by the law were up.
The police, at this point, had submitted a file to the DPP for advice on the way forward and were last week instructed to conduct further investigations.
This was done and it was based on additional evidence that Reid was rearrested and Binns subsequently held.
Three Tuesdays ago, as the electrician (Haynes) was making his way home on a bicycle from a birthday party held at a Norton Street residence, several persons pounced on him and beat him mercilessly.
They had assumed that he was the burglar who had broken into a house in Pirai Square, East La Penitence minutes earlier, and attempted to cart off a television set. That person dropped the item after an alarm was raised and escaped through a nearby alleyway. Subsequently a group of persons took a badly wounded Haynes to the Pirai Square home for identification saying that he was found staggering on a street in Meadow Brook.
The man was later taken to the East La Penitence Police Station and left in the yard between traffic motorcycles in the drizzling rain.
His reputed wife, Sheril Sydney had stated that when she called the station for information, the female rank at the other end of the line was uncaring and unmannerly. The Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) has since launched an investigation into the alleged negligence and misconduct by the ranks at the station.
Haynes was pronounced dead at the Georgetown Hospital and a post-mortem examination revealed that he died from multiple injuries.
