The five men accused of a multi-million dollar looting of the Digicel store in Linden during the protest there were yesterday admitted to bail in the sum of $150,000 each when they appeared at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court
The allegation against Orville Mitchell, Evan Barker, Devon Thomas, Colin Cornelius and Michael De Souza is that between July 18 and 19 at Mackenzie Linden, they broke and entered the Digicel Cellular Smart Store and stole a quantity of cell phones, four plasma televisions and other accessories valued $9.3 million, property of U-mobile Cellular Incorporated, Digicel.
They are also alleged to have stolen other items valued $3.3 million.
The defendants were not required to plead to the two indictable counts of break and enter and larceny when they were read to them by Magistrate Ann Mc Lennan before whom they appeared.
De Souza, Thomas and Cornelius were represented by attorneys Lyndon Amsterdam, Omeyana Hamilton and Michael Somersault respectively. The other two defendants were unrepresented.
The attorneys, in their bail application, argued that the police found nothing incriminating on neither their clients’ persons nor homes when they conducted searches; yet they were charged and placed before the courts.
Amsterdam said the charges stemmed from the present unrest in the mining town. He said that at the time of the alleged looting, his client was at home when the police arrived and conducted searches. After finding nothing incriminating or of evidential value, Amsterdam said that the lawmen left but later returned.
He said that subsequently, “someone came from the back and spoke of a monitor.”
He opined that the charges were proffered to “probably impress the Minister of Home Affairs that the police are doing some work.” The charges, he argued, were ridiculous.
He challenged the strength of the prosecution’s case, saying he was sure it would be unable to advance any witness to say that they had seen his client committing the alleged offence.
He further asked the court not to be swayed by the monetary value of the alleged stolen items in considering his client’s pretrial liberty. He asked too that all the defendants be admitted to reasonable bail, since they were of meagre means.
He said bail beyond that which they can afford would be tantamount to no bail at all.
Somersault in his bail application for Cornelius said that while some of the alleged stolen items were reportedly found in his client’s business place, he was innocent of the charges for which he stood accused, emphasisng that he was not around at the time of the alleged incident.
The lawyer said that Cornelius has two employees who also have keys to his business premises and opined that one of the two may have been responsible for some of the alleged stolen items being placed there.
The prosecution had no objection to the men being granted bail but ask that it be in substantial sums. It requested too that the defendants report to the Station Sergeant at the Mackenzie Police Station every Friday at 9 am, pending the determination of the matters.
No facts of what transpired were presented to the court by the prosecution.
Mitchell, 31, is a salesman and resides at 433 One Mile Wismar, Linden; Barker, 21, resides at 288 Bullet Wood Street, Mackenzie, Linden and is an electrician; De Souza is a 34-year-old husker and lives at 238 Bullet Wood Street also; 37-year-old Thomas lives at 259 Bullet Wood Street and has been working at the Linden Utility Services Co-op Society Limited for the past 16 years; Cornelius, 31, is a father of seven, operates a fish shop and resides at 54 Richmond Hill, Linden.
The matters were transferred to the Christianburg Magistrates’ Court for August 22.
The men appeared before the Magistrates’ Court late yesterday afternoon after being brought from Linden. When the case was initially called, Barker was absent.
After enquiring the reason for his absence, the court was told by the prosecution that he was “left at the Brickdam Police Station”.
The matter was then stood down for some time to await Barker’s arrival. He finally arrived at about 2.55 pm, after which the men were all arraigned.
Meanwhile, Mitchell is alleged to have had in his possession 19 grammes of cannabis for the purpose of trafficking, on July 21 at the Mackenzie Market, Linden, He denied the narcotic-trafficking charge when it was read to him.
His matter was transferred to the Christianburg Magis-trates’ Court for reports and fixtures on August 22 also.
