The carpenter pleaded not guilty to the charge of simple larceny when Acting Chief Magistrate Melissa Robertson read it to him.
He denied that on January 27, he stole a gold chain, a gold band and three gold rings, with a total value of $240,000, the property of Shaquelle Bourne.
The child’s mother, Shauna Bourne, who was also present in court, stated that James was her sister’s friend.
She stated that on the day in question James was at her home discussing a sale of a skirt when she left to go to a health centre with her son.
She said that she later returned and her sister asked her to do a money transaction at a bank for her.
She said that she told her sister she would do it since her son was sleeping.
She said she placed her son in her bed when her sister informed her that she would be accompanying her to the bank.
She said when they left, her mother was in the kitchen and James was at the front door.
She said while at the bank she received a call from her son’s father who was ranting about why she left their son in a taxi.
She said she took it for a joke and went home, but when she got there she saw her son in the arms of his father who was surrounded by three other men.
Bourne her son’s father told her that a wagon pulled up in front of his home a while before she arrived with their son in the front passenger’s seat.
She said she was subsequently told by one of the men that James was seen running out of her home with her son in his arms and onto the back road.
She said the man told her that James subsequently abandoned her son and fled the area and a man, who knew her son and his father, picked the child up.
He then took the boy to his father’s home, two houses away from Bourne.
Bourne said she then became hysterical.
Her son’s father then asked her where the child’s jewellery was and she recalled that her son was wearing the jewellery when she had placed him on the bed and left.
She said that she immediately made a report at the police station.
James, who stood in the court wearing a blank expression, stated, “I don’t know about anything.”
Prosecutor Stephen Telford objected to James’ bail application, when he suggested it.
The magistrate subsequently refused bail and ordered that James return to court on March 22. (AB)
