Man accused of Linden businesswoman’s murder granted $750,000 High Court bail

Jan 21, 2023 Court Stories, Features / Columnists, News

Kaieteur News – Murder accused, Asdino Bowen, who was on remand at the Mazaruni Prison for murder, was on Friday placed on $750,000 bail by High Court Judge Simone Morris-Ramlall.

The accused was represented by attorney-at-law Dexter Todd and associates. Todd in a statement to the media said that Bowen’s case represents the second time in Guyana’s history that a murder accused is granted bail.

Bowen was arrested and charged with murder committed on Linden businesswoman Shevon Gordon. Particulars of the charge allege that on April 4, 2015, at Lot 125 One Mile Linden, he murdered Gordon during the course or furtherance of a robbery.

He had appeared at the Linden Magistrates’ Court and upon completion of a Preliminary Inquiry (PI) in May 2017, he was committed to stand trial for murder in the High Court of Demerara at the next available sitting.

However, the PI was reopened in April of 2019 and Bowen was committed to stand trial for murder for the second time.

Todd’s chambers in a press release stated that despite being committed to stand trial for murder since 2020, his name had never appeared on the Criminal Assizes Session in the High Court of the Supreme Court of Judicature (Criminal Jurisdiction). As such, through his lawyer, the accused made an Application on December 16, 2022, to the High Court of the Supreme Court of Judicature for bail pending his murder trial.

The State in its defense to the Application indicated that the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), Shalimar Ali-Hack, SC, had made a second request for a reopening of the PI in Bowen’s case but there was no indication on any document of whether that was done.

Notably, while the State did indicate in its defence that the presiding Magistrate at the time confirmed that he did reopen the PI for the second time, there was no evidence to prove same. The State highlighted too that they were ‘awaiting word’ on the reopening of the PI as well as depositions from said reopening.

However, Justice Morris-Ramlall on the first hearing of the Application did not accept that answer from the State and while she did not grant Bowen bail on that occasion, she instructed the prosecutors in the matter to get all the necessary information needed and file a supplementary Affidavit in Defence highlighting why Bowen’s name was never on the Criminal Assizes Session in the High Court of the Supreme Court of Judicature (Criminal Jurisdiction) and all the relevant information as to his various Preliminary Inquiries.

In their Supplementary Affidavit in Defence, the prosecution indicated that the Clerk of Court perused Bowen’s file and found that the second PI was opened in June 2021 and that the file was uplifted on January 4, 2023, to compile the depositions of the PI.

Bowen’s lawyer stated that the aforementioned highlighted that his client was never indicted for murder.

The Judge later agreed with Bowen’s lawyer that the constitutional rights of the accused are infringed by this delay and therefore granted bail, along with the condition that he must report to the police every Friday until his trial for murder in the High Court is completed.

Asdino Bowen, attorney-at-law Dexter Todd, High Court Judge Simone Morris-Ramlal, Mazaruni Prison, Shevon Gordon

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Man accused of Linden businesswoman’s murder granted $750,000 High Court bail

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