…two others charged, remanded to prison

THREE persons on Thursday appeared at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court charged with harbouring a wanted man, before Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan.
It is alleged that Shyon Freeman of lot 120 Brutus Street Agricola, Carlotta Geer of Lot 80 Brutus Street Agricola and Esan Gibson of Lot 140 Cato Street Agricola, between Wednesday 19 July 2017 and Sunday 23 July 2017, knowingly haboured Marlon Jeffery after police published his name and photograph as wanted for a crime.
Police Prosecutor Alwin Moore stated that on July 11, 2017, Melroy Jeffery called Marlon Jeffery was engaged in a shootout with Police at Agricola, East Bank Demerara, where he was shot and a shotgun along with 8 Cartridges were found. In the process of the Shootout, he received injuries and was taken to the Georgetown Public Hospital where he was admitted and placed under police guard. On July 19, 2017, the said prisoner escaped from the hospital and by July 23, 2017, at around 05:30hrs, acting on information received, the police went to lot 80 Brutus Street Agricola and carried out a search in the said home where Jeffery was found in a barrel covered with a bag filled with curtains. After a caution statement had been given to Gibson, the 18-year-old welder allegedly admitted that he knew Jeffery had escaped from the GPHC after being arrested, but he saw him in the village and assisted him by taking him to the said home. Gibson was then arrested.
The Trio was represented by Attorney-at-law, Keoma Griffith who stated, in his request for bail, that 24- year-old Geer, who is a mother of three, her youngest being a one-year-old, maintained a job as a Guyoil Gas Station Pump Attendant, and that she cooperated with investigators and is not a flight risk. The Chief Magistrate then asked the defendant Gibson, who pleaded guilty, if he had anything to say following Police Prosecutor Moore’s statement, to which he responded “no ma’am”. Prosecutor Moore objected to bail based on the seriousness of the offense and that witnesses from whom police would have to obtain statements also live in the Agricola area.
The court then sentenced Gibson to three years in jail with a fine of $80,000 and denied bail to Geer and Freeman, a 17 year old employee at Kevin’s Reflection, who both pleaded not guilty to the charge. The two were remanded to prison until August 19, 2017.