AFTER spending the last seven years on remand for the murder of Linden businesswoman Shevon Gordon, 32-year-old Asdino Bowen, was, on Friday, released on $750,000 bail by High Court Judge Simone Morris-Ramlall, pending his trial for the crime.

In May 2015, Bowen of Blueberry Hill, Wismar, Linden was remanded to prison for the murder of Gordon, who was gunned down outside of her house on April 4, 2015, at One Mile Block 22, Wismar, Linden during a robbery.

She was also relieved of a bag containing money and her son was also wounded.

Following a preliminary inquiry (PI) at the Linden Magistrate’s Court, Bowen was committed to stand trial in the High Court in May 2017.

However, the PI was reopened in April 2019. The following year, Bowen was again committed to stand trial for murder.

His attorneys from Dexter Todd and Associates Law Firm filed an application for bail pending trial in the High Court on December 16, 2022.

In a release, the law firm said that despite being committed to stand trial for murder since 2020, Bowen’s name never appeared on the Criminal Assizes Session in the High Court.

“The State in their defence to the application indicated that the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) had made a second request for a reopening of the Preliminary Inquiry of Mr. Bowen but there was no indication on any document of whether that was done.

“While the State did indicate in their defence that the presiding magistrate at the time confirmed that he did reopen the preliminary inquiry for the second time, there was no evidence to prove same,” the release said.

According to Bowen’s attorneys, the State highlighted that they were “awaiting word” on the reopening of the PI as well as depositions from said reopening.

As a result, Justice Morris-Ramlall, on the first hearing of the application, did not accept that answer from the State nor did she grant Bowen bail on that occasion.

The judge instructed counsel for the State to get all the necessary information needed and file a supplementary affidavit in defence highlighting why Bowen’s name was never on the Criminal Assizes Session as well as the absence of all the relevant information concerning his PIs.

“In their Supplementary affidavit in defence, the prosecution indicated that the Clerk of Court perused Mr. Bowen’s file and found that the second preliminary inquiry was opened in June 2021 and that the file was uplifted on January 4, 2023, to compile the depositions of the preliminary inquiry. This highlighted that Mr. Bowen was never indicted for murder, a very important aspect for the process,” the release said.

On Friday, the judge ordered that Bowen be released on 750,000 bail with the condition that he must report to the police every Friday until his trial for murder in the High Court is completed.

The judge also agreed with the defence lawyer that the constitutional rights of the accused are infringed upon by this delay.