Defence lawyer to Crown: produce the evidence

Attorney-at-law Kyle Walkes on Tuesday issued a plea for the Crown to produce evidence against his client, declaring “we have a strong defence”.

Walkes made the submission before Acting Chief Magistrate Wanda Blair on behalf of Dareo Theo Mitchell, a 27-year-old labourer of Skeetes Road, Fairfield, Black Rock.

Mitchell is jointly charged with Jadario Jelani Jacoby Murray, 19, of Cherry Tree Lane, Black Rock with unlawfully wounding Derrick Ward on September 14, with intent to maim, disfigure or disable him or to do some serious bodily harm to him.

The two are separately accused of using a firearm on the mentioned day without  licences.

Murray is further charged with possession of a firearm, on September 16, without a valid licence and 17 rounds of ammunition without a valid permit. He is also facing the September 14 charge of damaging a house belonging to Lurine Hoyte without lawful excuse or was reckless as to whether such property would be damaged.

The accused were not required to plead to the indictable charges before the District ‘D’ Magistrates’ Court. Since some of the charges fall under the Firearms Act, the accused received an automatic 28-day remand at HMP Dodds.

Despite this, Walkes, addressing Magistrate Blair on Mitchell’s behalf said: “These are serious allegations . . .  and we have a very strong defence in the matter.”

He continued: “We are asking for the investigators to bring the evidence swiftly before the court . . . so the court can see if it is enough for it to be committed for trial.

“We have a strong defence and we are yearning to put that to the court.”

Magistrate Blair requested through prosecuting Police Constable Sayleen Hinds for the Crown to provide disclosure as soon as possible as the court “did not want it [the case] loitering for too long”.

The defence attorney also requested that the evidence used to charge the men be submitted to the court as soon as possible.

“We just want something a little concrete,” Walkes added.

The case was then adjourned for the two to reappear before the District ‘D’ Magistrates’ Court on October 18.

Murray is set to go before the District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court on October 19 to deal with the possession of gun and ammunition cases which are alleged to have occurred in that jurisdiction.