Accused in robbery of judge denied bail after new appeal

A new bail application for Anthony David, one of the four men charged with robbing Land Court judge Nicola Pierre and her husband Mohamed Chand, was denied yesterday, even after the prosecutor in the case was unable to tell the court what evidence the police has that implicates him in the crime.

David was represented by attorney Lyndon Amsterdam, who told Magistrate Zamilla Ally at the Sparendaam Magistrate’s Court yesterday that the prosecution does not have any evidence to charge his client.

“If you are going to charge people, at the initial stage you need to have evidence and not charge them willy-nilly,” Amsterdam said. “It cannot be justice to the people who are charged and it cannot be justice to the victims because those people [the perpetrators] are still out there,” he added.

Anthony David
Anthony David

While Amsterdam was making his application, David and his alleged accomplices Damion Millington and Nicholas Narine began to nod their heads in agreement.

Amsterdam said none of the complainants identified David. “He was at Mike’s Pharmacy at the time when [the police] told him to come at the station,” Amsterdam said. The attorney said David only found out what he was charged with at his arraignment, prior to which no allegation was put to him.

David had told Magistrate Ann McLennan that he did not know his co-accused and that he was tortured by the police. He maintained that stance yesterday at the Sparendaam Magistrate’s Court.

“No search was done to his home or car. The prosecutor got a statement from one person. What iota of evidence is one statement linking [David] to the crime?” Amsterdam questioned.

Magistrate Ally subsequently asked Prosecutor Sherlock King what evidence he has that would implicate David. King could not provide any evidence to the court. Magistrate Ally then told him that when the case is called again on August 10th she expects evidence against the accused, who was once more remanded to prison.

On July 20th, David, 28, of 63 Hadfield Street, Stabroek, Millington, 20, of 118 Caesar Street, Agricola and Narine, 18, were charged with robbing Justice Pierre and Chand at their Felicity, East Coast Demerara home and discharging a loaded firearm at security guard Raul Peters.

The court heard that on July 9th, the three defendants, in the company of others, robbed Justice Pierre of articles, including watches, a tablet, video game consoles and games, a phone, a laptop and a quantity of gold and gemstones, all amounting to a total value of $1 million.

It was also alleged that they robbed Chand of five watches, a wedding ring, four Oakley sunglasses, two leather wallets, a Samsung S5 cellphone and US$8,000, all amounting $2,630, 000.

The men were not required to plead to the indictable charge.

Another man, Premnauth Samaroo, was charged on July 13th with the crime. Samaroo, 49, of Lot 16 Craig Street, Campbellville was charged after he was picked out during an identification parade but he told Magistrate Ally that the police had the wrong person.

Samaroo was one of four men who were held by police shortly after the attack. Three other persons who were arrested with him were released on station bail but ordered to report to police at stipulated times as the investigation of the attack continued

Although both Pierre and Chand were brutalised during the attack, no charges related to the assault on the couple have been instituted.