Aubrey Rodney, the man accused of attempting to murder his partner Sharon Howell with a hammer, was yesterday further remanded to prison after the court prosecutor reported that the woman’s condition has worsened.
Yesterday’s hearing at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court was set for report on the virtual complainant’s (VC) condition and the prosecution informed Magistrate Faith McGusty that Howell was still hospitalised and that her condition not only continued to be serious, it had worsened.
After this report was presented, the presiding magistrate informed Rodney that he would be denied his pre-trial liberty.
When given a chance to speak, Rodney and some of his relatives told the court that contrary to the prosecutor’s report, Howell had been discharged from hospital and on this basis bail should be granted to the defendant. Accord-ing to them, Howell was discharged on Saturday. Howell, at the weekend, was said to be resting at her Freeman Street, East La Penitence home, after her hospital discharge.
The prosecution, however, in refuting the claim, firmly asserted that it stood by its application for the accused to be denied bail since the investigating rank had informed that as of yesterday morning the complainant was still hospitalised and that her condition had worsened.
After listening to both sides, Magistrate McGusty informed the accused that a short adjournment would be granted to him, during which time he would be further remanded to prison. She also told the prosecution to properly ascertain whether the compliant is still indeed hospitalised or not during this time. The matter will be called again on June 15.
Rodney is accused of the May 27 charge, which alleges that he unlawfully and maliciously wounded Howell with intent to commit murder.
The accused was remanded to prison after he was arraigned on an attempted murder charge before Magistrate Hazel Octave-Hamilton, on June 6. He has not been required to plead to the indictable charge. The matter was subsequently transferred to Court Two before Magistrate McGusty.
According to reports, around 1:30 am on May 27, Howell, a security guard and her partner, Rodney, arrived home after the woman had finished her shift at a D’Urban Street bar in the city. The two were heard arguing loudly and sometime later the man launched an attack on the woman. The mother of 10 was stabbed multiple times about the body, including to her shoulder, neck and head. The man is accused of using the claw of the hammer to inflict the wounds.
Rodney, the father of the woman’s youngest child, a one-year-old girl, later ingested a poisonous substance at his sister’s home at Diamond, on the East Bank of Demerara and he hospitalised. He was later discharged and placed before the courts.
The woman’s daughter, Tammica James, told Stabroek News that her mother and the man struck up a relationship a little over a year ago but noted that, ”he always got a problem with how she dress or the friends she got because mommy got a lot of male friends and he don’t like that.”
She said that the man would become jealous whenever her mother interacted with men and on many occasions he would embarrass her in public.
She related that several months ago the man had beaten her mother about her body at their home and during the incident she sustained a stab wound to her hand. She said that the police warned the man not to hit the woman but the situation continued.
