Justice Simone Morris-Ramlall, on Friday, granted bail in the sum of $750,000 bail to Asdino Bowen who was on remand at the Mazaruni Prison for the 2015 murder of Wismar businesswoman Shevon Gordon.
Bowen, who was represented by Dexter Todd and Associates Law Firm, had approached the Demerara High Court for bail pending trial on December 16, 2022.
On May 2015, Bowen of Blueberry Hill, Wismar, Linden was remanded to prison for the murder of Shevon Gordon, who was gunned down outside of her home during a robbery.
According to a release from Todd’s Chambers, after undergoing a preliminary inquiry at the Linden Magistrates Court, Bowen was finally committed to the High Court in May 2017.
However, his Preliminary Inquiry was reopened in April 2019, and Bowen once again was committed to stand trial for murder in 2020.
“ 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),” the release said.
As such, he filed his bail application to the High Court.
“The State in their defence to the Application indicated that the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) had made a second request for a reopening of the Preliminary Inquiry of Mr. Bowen but there was no indication on any document to confirm whether that was done.
“While the State did indicate in their defence that the presiding Magistrate at the time confirmed that he did reopen the preliminary inquiry for the second time, there was no evidence to prove same,” the release stated.
According to Todd’s Chambers, the State highlighted that they were “awaiting word” on the reopening of the PI as well as depositions from said reopening.
Justice Morriss-Ramlall, on the first hearing of the application, did not accept that answer from the State nor did she grant Bowen bail on that occasion.
Instead, she instructed the prosecutors in the matter to get all the necessary information needed and file a supplementary Affidavit in Defense highlighting why the accused name was never on the Criminal Assizes Session and all the relevant information as to his various PIs.
“In their Supplementary Affidavit in Defense, the prosecution indicated that the Clerk of Court perused Mr. Bowen’s file and found that the second Preliminary Inquiry was opened in June 2021 and that the file was uplifted on January 4, 2023, to compile the depositions of the Preliminary Inquiry.
“This highlighted that Mr. Bowen was never indicted for murder, a very important aspect for the process,” the release stated.
As such, Justice Morriss-Ramlall agreed with the defence lawyer that the constitutional rights of the accused are infringed by this delay.
Bowen was released on $750,000 bail with the condition that he must report to the police every Friday until his trial for murder in the High Court is completed.
