Acting Chief Magistrate Melissa Robertson yesterday remanded a 37-year-old man to prison when he appeared before her at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court accused of shooting another man in the ankle.
Royston Jerome, a shop owner of 767 One Mile, Wismar, Linden, was not required to plead to the indictable charges of discharging a loaded firearm at a man and also causing him grievous bodily harm.
It is alleged that on May 28, at Potaro, Essequibo, Jerome unlawfully and maliciously inflicted grievous bodily harm on Anzel Marcello. He is also accused on the same day of discharging a loaded firearm at Marcello with intent to maim, disfigure, disable or cause him actual bodily harm.
However, Jerome’s lawyer, Adrian Thompson, stated that “even though the charge is indictable my client is claiming his innocence.”
He said that Marcello did not know who really shot him but he only “suspected” that it was Jerome because they had an altercation before where he had dealt Jerome a blow to his head with a glass bottle.
He said that there were many people at the scene of the incident and any one of them could be the real perpetrator.
The lawyer also stated that his client did not own a firearm.
Thompson went on to say that the injury that Marcello had sustained was not life-threatening since the bullet had hit his foot. “It’s not even broken,” he added.
He further noted that his client posed no risk of flight and he was well known in his community since he was the owner of a shop there.
Police Prosecutor Denise Griffith stated that Marcello was currently hospitalized since he was shot to the ankle. She said that his ankle is swollen.
She said that police would be sent to the hospital to check on Marcello and a report on his condition would be given on Jerome’s next court appearance.
The magistrate subsequently ordered that Jerome be remanded to prison and that he return to court tomorrow.
