A American woman, charged with trafficking in narcotics, was yesterday remanded to prison when she appeared before Magistrate Hazel Octive-Hamilton at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court.
It is alleged that on April 28, at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport Timehri, Christina Nicola Williams, 25, had in her possession 9.328 kilogrammes of cocaine.
Williams, a part-time cook and student, pleaded not guilty to the charge when it was read to her. Attorney-at-law James Bond, who represented Williams, told the court that it was her first visit to Guyana to attend her father’s funeral.
“My Worship, my client’s father is Guyanese and her mother is Jamaican, she has never visited Guyana before but was told that her father had died and as a result she decided to take a week off from college and contacted a brother here in Guyana that she had never met in a bid to come and attend her father’s funeral,” Bond said.
“It was quite unfortunate, however, Madam, that when she was going back to the US, her relatives in New Jersey had contacted her and asked her to take back some grind seasoning for them to the US and it was in the bottles containing the grind seasoning that the illegal substance was found concealed.”
Bond argued that though the illegal substance was found in his client’s luggage, she was not in possession of it since she had no knowledge of it, nor that the person or persons who had given her the bottles of ground seasoning had packed cocaine in the bottles.
He further that it was possible for someone to put something into your possession without you having any knowledge of it. He posited that the absence or presence of the element of knowledge of what is in one’s possession is the major determinant.
He stressed, “People can slip things into your bag, your pockets, purses and wallets etc, Madam. And though it would be listed as being in your possession, My Worship, it is different from you being in possession of that thing since you have no knowledge of it. And this, My Worship, is the case of my client and the offence for which she stands accused.”
Bond then made a bail application for his client on the ground that she posed no risk of flight since her travel documents were seized by CANU.
But Special Prosecutor for CANU Oswald Massiah informed the court that the arguments put forward by the defence were far from the truth. According to Massiah, the defendant was in Guyana to attend a wedding. When she was held, he said, she told CANU officers that she had purchased the containers of ground seasoning from a supermarket, but could not name the supermarket. “My Worship, this defendant claimed that she was here to attend a wedding not any funeral as she would want this honourable court to believe and it must be noted also that there was in actual fact no weeding,” Massiah argued. “And what is even more surprising is that she could not give a name or even a location for the supermarket from which she had claimed to purchase the items. Credibility on her part, My Worship, is hard to come by.”
Additionally, Massiah told the court that the 1717 Princes Street, Wortmanville address that Williams had given to CANU officers and furnished to the court was a fake address since, when taken there, she could not associate herself with the surroundings nor anyone at the residence, not even as a guest.
Williams was subsequently refused bail. The case has been transferred to the Providence Magistrate’s Court and fixed to continue on Friday.
