Two men accused of having an unlicensed shotgun in their possession were yesterday denied bail.
The allegation against Alistair Williams and Kefa Small is that on August 8, at Georgetown, they had in their possession a 20-gauge double barrel shotgun, bearing number B4563, without a licence.
Williams and Small, who were jointly charged, pleaded not guilty to the charge when it was read to them by Magistrate Hazel Octive-Hamilton at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court
Attorney for Williams, Lance Ferreira, said that the charges arose out of “some rather disturbing circumstances,” and he contended that the police never found the defendants to have been in possession of the weapon, although they were arrested and charged.
Advancing special circumstances in a bail application for his client, Ferreira said that Williams left his 109 Carmichael Street home in the company of Small, with whom he boarded a taxi. Sometime later, Ferreira said, the driver of the vehicle parked and entered the “Globe yard.”
While awaiting the driver’s return, the lawyer said that the accused were approached by police, who searched the vehicle and found the firearm under the front seat of the car. Counsel maintained that the defendants were never found with anything illegal in their possession.
Ferreira, in his bail application, noted that his client, 20, is employed as a body-work labourer.
The prosecutor Simone Payne, however, objected to bail, saying that the police’s case differed from that of the defence. The police, she noted, acting on information received, approached the vehicle.
She said that Williams was seated in the back and had a blue and black haversack on his lap, in which the illegal firearm was found after searches were conducted by the lawmen. Small, she said, was in the front passenger seat.
When asked to establish the link between Small’s presence in the vehicle and the charge against him, the prosecutor failed in her initial attempt.
It was not until the presiding magistrate read a portion of the investigating rank’s statement from the case file that the court was able to establish a connection to the alleged offence.
According to Payne, Small was in Williams’ company in the taxi and that was why he was charged.
The court however, asserted that that account was “highly speculative,” adding that the fact that someone is in a taxi with another who is alleged to have committed an offence does not necessarily mean that that person has knowledge of the offence. After this declaration by the court, the prosecutor continued to maintain that Small was in the company of Williams and was observed by the police boarding a taxi with him.
“I don’t know nothing about this gun meh worship,” Small, who was initially unrepresented by counsel, said, when given a chance to speak.
Attorney Paul Fung-a-Fat, who subsequently entered an appearance on his behalf, however, made an application for bail.
He said that the prosecution’s case supported the “biggest special circumstances” for his client, as no nexus was established by the prosecution between his client’s boarding a taxi with Williams to that of the alleged offence committed.
After examining the case file for some time, however, the magistrate said that the investigating rank in his statement noted that he observed the two accused boarding a silver private motor vehicle after leaving a yard together, and not a taxi as the prosecutor had previously reported. The court then informed both men that they would be refused bail.
The matter will be called again on September 24 for reports and fixtures.
