Shot Albouystown man remanded over robbery of pensioner, woman

A man charged with two counts of robbery was on Friday remanded to prison after appearing before acting Chief Magistrate Priya Sewnarine-Beharry at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court.

The allegation against Kerry Cromwell of King Edward Street Albouystown is that on March 1 at Albouystown, being armed with a knife, he robbed Paulas Chandra, 70, of a gold chain and ring valued $124,000.

On the same day, being together with another person, Cromwell is alleged to have robbed Trovecia Baker of one hand bag containing a number of articles valued $19,000.

The accused, who was shot while being apprehended by the police, was not required to plead to the indictable charges when they were read to him.

In presenting the prosecution’s facts of the case, police corporal Venetta Pindar told the court that on the day in question, the defendant who was armed with a knife approached Chandra and demanded his jewellery.

Pindar said that the accused placed a knife to the complainant’s side and bit the ring off his finger and snatched the chain after which he made good his escape.

Chandra had related to Stabroek News that he had just picked up his pension from the Post Office and was riding along Drysdale Street on his bicycle. He was on his way to visit a friend in the area. While making his way to the friend’s house, two young men (one riding a bicycle and towing the other on the handle of the transport) came towards him from the opposite direction. “They came up in front me and I had to stop. I had on a gold chain… and one of them tell me to give he the ‘f’ing’ chain and I handed it over,” Chandra said.

The two attackers then started to escape, Chandra recounted, and he thought it was the end of the ordeal. However, he then heard one of the attackers telling the other one that he (Chandra) was wearing gold rings and questioning if they were going to leave him with it.

The men attacked him a second time, Chandra said, and while one subdued his struggles the second attacker bit two gold rings from two of his fingers.

After biting the ring from his fingers, the men then tried to get his bicycle and started brandishing knives at him. “They manage to catch me here lil,” Chandra said pointing to a small cut on the left side of his chest. “After that I get push in the drain.”

Residents in the area who know him well, Chandra said, helped him from the drain and helped him to wash the mud from his skin. He then made his way to the East La Penitence Police Station, where he lodged a report and gave police a statement.

Chandra said that police had asked him to go to the hospital to get a medical. However, the man said that no police vehicle was available to take him and he was too shaken to ride his bicycle all the way to the hospital.

The man further said that he believed that the attackers had been watching him and later trailed him to Drysdale Street to launch their attack. “They gone with all my pension…all of it they gone with,” he lamented.

As it relates to the other incident, the prosecution’s facts are that Barker and her boyfriend were walking when the accused in the company of another person accosted them, held them at knife point and relieved the woman of the article mentioned in the charge; after which they successfully escaped.

The corporal added however, that not long after the robberies, the defendant was apprehended by a mobile police patrol that was in the vicinity at the time after they were alerted by alarms raised by the victims. Cromwell was subsequently shot by the police in the thigh.

The prosecution objected to the accused being admitted to bail citing the seriousness and prevalence of the offence, the likelihood of him interfering with the witnesses and the possibility of him not wanting to return to stand trial as he had to be pursued by the police at the time of his arrest.

After listening to the case, the prosecution’s request was granted and the unrepresented Cromwell was remanded to prison. He returns to court on March 29.