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Murphy Valarie and Taska Joseph are now awaiting Magistrate Michael Laudat’s decision on bail following their court appearance today, charged in connection to an attempted robbery at the National Petroleum service station in Canefield.<\/p>\n
The male and female of Curry Rest Road, Mahaut, are accused of assaulting Simon Gage in an attempt to rob him on June 12, 2023, at Canefield.<\/p>\n
At their court appearance, the accused individuals were not required to enter a plea since the matter is an indictable offense, expected to be tried at the High Court before a Judge and jury.<\/p>\n
At the hearing, police prosecutor, Inspector Francis Laville objected to bail pursuant to section 7:1 (e), 7:2 (c) and (e) of the Bail Act.<\/p>\n
He told the court, the police are in pursuit of other individuals in connection to this matter and an alleged firearm used during the commissioning of the offense. According to Laville, the prosecution fears that should Valarie and Joseph be released on bail, they will interfere with ongoing investigations.<\/p>\n
Laville further averred that it is not in the public\u2019s interest to grant bail to the pair and asked the court to take judicial notice of the public outcry for the increase in firearm-related offenses. However, in response, attorney-at-law Wayne Norde along with defense attorney Dawn Yearwood- Stewart who represents Valarie dubbed the prosecution\u2019s objection as \u201cempty, weak, vague, and baseless.\u201d<\/p>\n
Norde told the presiding Magistrate that the request of Inspector Laville to detain \u201cinnocent\u201d people while the police continue their investigation will not serve in the interest of justice for the accused.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe golden rule is that the police investigate then arrest and it should not be the other way around,\u201d Norde declared. \u201cThis offense occurred seven days ago, and the prosecution says the defendant will interfere with potential witnesses. Based on the passage of time, I don\u2019t see how this will occur if they are granted bail.\u201d<\/p>\n
The defense attorney further posited, the element of the public\u2019s interest does not apply in this case because, although the charges are of a serious nature the alleged incident attracted no public attention.<\/p>\n
Should his client be released, Norde said, Valarie has a fixed place of abode, is employed, will attend court at every adjourned date, and will abide by any bail condition set by the court. During his bail application, the attorney called the Investigating Officer as a witness. Following a series of questions, Constable Titre stated, that the police have in their possession video footage of the alleged crime, and support the prosecution’s objection to bail as according to him, the
\naccused individual will apprise other suspects of the evidence that the police have obtained.<\/p>\n
Titre further noted that Criminal Investigation Department (CID) is requesting an additional two weeks to complete their investigation. Following the bail application by the defense, Magistrate Laudat remanded Valarie and Joseph into
\ncustody pending his written decision which will be handed down on June 20, 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Murphy Valarie and Taska Joseph are now awaiting Magistrate Michael Laudat’s decision on bail following their court appearance today, charged in connection to an attempted robbery at the National Petroleum service station in Canefield. The male and female of…","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":301286,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","footnotes":""},"categories":[19,77,235,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-304248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime-court-law","category-homepage","category-homepage-carousel","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n