Futile pleas

Despite an impassioned submission by defense attorney Michael Lashley, Q.C. this morning for his teenage client to be granted bail, Magistrate Joy-ann Clarke did not grant the 18-year-old his freedom.

Lashley is representing Shakeen Sergio Boyce  who is charged with unlawfully wounding Jamal Springer with intent to maim, disfigure or disable him or to do him some other serious bodily harm on October 1, 2019.

“I beg you, I plead with you, I urge you Your Worship for bail for this young 18-year-old man,” the Queen’s Counsel declared before the magistrate.

But the presiding judicial officer rejected his appeal based on the seriousness of the matter.

Lashley had told the court that his client was not a flight risk, noting that he had no previous convictions, that he voluntarily surrendered himself at Hastings Police Station, and that he had a fixed place of abode at Dalkeith Road, St Michael.

He had also told the court he would accept his client being ordered to hand in any travel documents or even be placed on a curfew.

But the prosecution objected to bail on the grounds that society must be protected from him, he must be protected from society; that the offence carries a sentence of over five years and that part of the investigation involves another accused being sought by the police.

The prosecution told the magistrate if Boyce were granted bail, the police fear there may be some interference with the investigations.

The case was adjourned until November 15.