Three men appeared before Chief Magistrate, Ann McLennan at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Court on Thursday, charged with a series of firearm and ammunition offences and armed robbery.
Casey Chapman, a 27-year-old taxi driver of South Sophia; Sheldon Andrews, a 24-year-old Guyana Water Inc. (GWI) employee of West Ruimveldt Housing Scheme and Adam McDonald, a 30-year-old block maker, of Amelia’s Ward, Linden pleaded not guilty to the four charges.
Particulars of the first two charges alleged that on November 26, 2018, at Princess and High Street, the men had a .32 Taurus and a 9MM Glock pistol in their possession without being the holder of firearm licences.
The last two charges read that the trio had had 12 live rounds of 9MM ammunition along with seven live rounds of .32 ammunition.
Chapman was further charged with being armed with a gun and in the company of others on July 5, 2017, at Rome, East Bank Demerara, he robbed Marcia Maria Martin of a quantity of cash and raw gold, documents and other items amounting to $1.4M. He denied the charge.
Chapman and Andrews were represented by Attorneys-at-law Dave DaSilva and Paul Fung-A-Fat, respectively while McDonald was unrepresented.
The two Attorneys contended that no firearm was found in the possession of their client.
Fung-A-Fat told the court that the alleged firearm was found under the duvet seat of the car which was driven by Chapman.
He added that Andrews was outside of the car talking to Chapman through the window.
“It is poor policing work to charge my client,” Fung-A-Fat told the court.
Meanwhile, McDonald told the court that he was not found by the police in the car but ranks arrested him because he was nearby.
Police Prosecutor, Simone Payne objected to the men being released on bail.
She said that Police acted on intelligence received and intercepted the car at the Infiniti Gas Station at Princess and High Streets about 17:00hrs on the day in question.
She disclosed that McDonald was charged with two firearm-related offences two years ago but the charges were dismissed.
In the armed robbery charge against Chapman, Payne told the court that he was positively pointed out during an ID parade by the victim’s Chief Security Officer.
The Chief Magistrate released the men on $400,000 bail each and adjourned the matter until December 12 for the firearm-related charges.
Meanwhile, Chapman was remanded to prison until December 3, 2018, when he will appear before the Providence Magistrate’s Court.
