Palo Seco man deemed flight risk, denied bail for 2021 murder

Black Immigrant Daily News

The content originally appeared on: Trinidad and Tobago Newsday

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A 24-year-old Palo Seco man charged in 2021 for the murder of Erin villager Jeromy Rampersad has been denied bail.

Rampersad’s burnt remains were found a month after he was reported missing,

In a recent ruling, Justice Lisa Ramsumair-Hinds refused the bail application of Ashmeer Persad Beharry after she held she was satisfied there were substantial grounds for believing he would fail to surrender to custody if released on bail.

In her 18-page ruling, after assessing the prosecution’s evidence and the seriousness of the offence, Ramsumair-Hinds said, “The risk of absconding is case-specific and in my assessment, it is high and cannot be mitigated/managed with conditions attached to the bail.

“I appreciate that he is relatively young and can be said to have an unblemished record. But that record, ‘white as the driven snow’ though it may be, is utterly bereft of any details that could positively weigh in the balance against the likelihood of flight.”

She said it was easy to see, on the strength of the proposed evidence, flight would be a tempting reprieve from the risk of a guilty verdict.

In her ruling, the judge said she objectively considered there was “an undoubted correlation” between the gravity of the offence of murder and a temptation to abscond.

“The more serious the offence, the longer the sentence is likely to be and therefore the greater the incentive to avoid attending court,” she said, noting also that unlike in other countries, murder has no categories of degree in Trinidad and Tobago.

“One cannot ignore the fact that murder is not categorised by degree and, with the exception of those cases where the felony-murder principle applies or where the accused person was under…18, the charge of murder is exceptional in that it attaches an automatic death penalty.”

Beharry was charged on May 7, 2021.

In a release, the police said Rampersad, 29, of Arena Village, was last seen at his home on April 23, 2021, and reported missing two days later. His burnt remains were found in Palo Seco on May 6.

In July, the Privy Council settled the law on bail applications for murder when it upheld the February landmark ruling of the Court of Appeal that section 5(1) of the Bail Act was unconstitutional. That section prevented judges from considering bail applications by anyone charged with murder.

The State was represented by senior prosecutor Anju Bhola, Beharry was represented by attorney Jeevan Rampersad.

NewsAmericasNow.com

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