Primary school student in court for armed robbery

A 26-year-old SRP who appeared before a Port-of-Spain magistrate on robbery charges was yesterday granted bail in the sum of $150,000 after the indictable robbery charges were read to him. PC Anthony Andre of Straker Village, Laventille, stood before Magistrate Avason Quinlan in the Port-of-Spain 4B Court with two teenaged accomplices, when the charges were read to them.

The court heard that on Sunday at the corner of Robert and Gatacre Streets in Woodbrook,  Andre, 17-year-old Shevaughn Peters and another 14-year-old accused were all armed with revolvers and robbed Jeremy Jagessar of $9 and one utility knife valued at US$15. Another charge read that all three parties, while armed with revolvers, robbed Amore Paul of a cellular phone valued at $1,100. When the magistrate asked the three accused if they had anything to say, the accused SRP asked the magistrate if he was going to be granted bail. In response, the magistrate told the accused he was in fact going to be granted bail and told him it was $150,000 to be approved by a Clerk of the Peace.

Representing both accused teenagers was attorney Frederick Diaz, who asked that the parents of the two other boys be present in court during his bail application on their behalf. When the parents of the two accused arrived in the court, Diaz, in his application for the younger of the two accused, told the magistrate the accused boys lived with both parents and was still attending primary school, and asked that bail be granted due to the tender age of his client. In response to the application, Quinlan granted bail to the 14-year-old in the sum of $100,000, and would consider his father, a taxi driver, as the surety for the bail.