Court hears how gun accused hid weapon in disabled mother’s lap

A High Court heard that a disabled mother, now deceased, had been terrified when police found the gun her son Peter Ricardo Mayers tried to hide in her lap two years ago.

“I say look how the police going to carry me away for a gun that I know nothing about,” Aldene Daniel said in a statement which was read into evidence by a court clerk on Monday, during Mayers’ trial in the No. 4 Supreme Court.

Mayers, of My Lord’s Hill, St Michael, is before Madam Justice Laurie-Ann Smith-Bovell and a nine-member jury accused of having a Smith and Wesson 9 mm luger calibre semi-automatic pistol and ten rounds of ammunition on April 20, 2019.

From Daniel’s statement, the court heard that she suffered from diabetes and was visually impaired for 11 to 12 years as a result of that condition. She also had high blood pressure, heart problems, and poor circulation. Daniel’s left leg had also been amputated and she needed a wheelchair to get around.

But, she had told police, she was able to “hear very well” and recognised family members by their voices.

On the mentioned day, she was at home in bed between “sleep and wake” when she heard a knock on the door.

“As soon as I heard the noise . . . I heard running inside the house. From the noise, I suspected it was Peter . . . . Shortly after I heard the running inside the house, I heard Peter come into my bedroom and said something to the effect that the police out there,” Daniel stated in her statement.

“I then felt something like a cloth or a fabric containing a heavy object was placed in my lap, between my legs. I asked Peter what it was and Peter then said something to the effect ‘that is my gun’.  After this, I felt Peter put a pillow and a blanket over my lap where the items placed in my lap was,” the statement continued, adding that it appeared her son subsequently left her room.

“I immediately got frightened and said ‘Oh Lord!’ I said so because I was thinking ‘look now the police was going to lock me up . . . .’

“I did not know that Peter had a gun, neither did he ever come and place any gun or anything so on me before . . . . At that time I was hoping that the police did not find what he put in my lap.”

Shortly after, the police came into her bedroom which was at the front of the house and a female officer informed her that they were going to search her bed.

“ . . . . I felt the police remove the blanket and pillow from my lap. I heard the police say something to the effect that they found a gun. I was really frightened because I say, ‘look how the police going to carry me away for a gun that I know nothing about’. The police then asked me what I can say about the gun they found in my lap. I said to the police ‘he hide it on me’,” Daniel’s statement continued.

Police informed the woman and her son that the weapon contained ten rounds of ammunition and asked Mayers whether he had a permit.

“I asked the police what they meant by rounds and the female police officer said they referring to bullets. I told the police I ain’t know nothing about them. I don’t know who he buy it from or where he get the bullets,” said Daniel in her statement. 

She was subsequently taken to a police station.

According to a death certificate provided to the court, Daniel passed away seven months later, in November 2019.