KINGSTON, Jamaica — A man who reportedly eluded the police for six years after allegedly murdering his 74-year-old landlord during a dispute over the payment of a light bill was denied bail in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate’s Court Friday.

Clevon Latibeaudiere, 40, labourer of Lyssons, St Thomas, who is charged for the 2006 murder of Hubert Gayle, businessman of Orion Lane, Harbour View, Kingston 14, was arrested in July after he was held at house in Lyssons during a police raid.

According to police reports, on September 15, 2006, Gayle was at his jerk centre near the Harbour View roundabout when an argument developed between him and Latibeaudiere over the payment of the light bill.

Gayle was reportedly sitting on a chair when the accused used a knife to stab him in the chest.

The injured man was taken to the Kingston Public Hospital where he later died while the accused reportedly fled the scene and could not be found.

However, the accused man’s lawyer, Bertram Anderson, told the court during a bail application that the accused left the area and had moved to a family home in St Thomas before the incident and therefore does not know anything about the man’s death.

Added to that, the lawyer said his client had an alibi for his whereabouts on the day in question.

But Magistrate Maxine Ellis rejected the application on the basis that Latibeaudiere is a fight risk and that the defence had not provided the court with a statement from the person providing the alibi.

“You will remain with this court because as far as we are concerned you are a flight risk and the police do not have the resources to hunt you down,” Ellis said to Latibeaudiere.

He is to return to court on September 12.