A48-year-old man, who reportedly threatened to kill his commonlaw wife and her daughter, while in custody for reportedly molesting his five-year-old daughter, was last week remanded when he appeared before the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate’s Court.

It is alleged that the accused contacted the complainants, who are both witnesses in the case, on separate occasions via cellular phone while he was at the Central Police lockup in downtown Kingston, and told them, “Me a go kill you if you come a court.”

The incident reportedly took place on November 14 and 15, shortly after he was taken into custody on allegations of sexually assaulting his child.

The accused man was reportedly caught in a compromising position with the child in his bedroom.

However, when he appeared in court on Thursday, he pleaded not guilty to two counts of threatening Crown witnesses and was remanded for trial on December 18.

Cellphone in lunch box

A prisoner’s alleged attempt to smuggle a cellular phone into jail in a false compartment of a lunch box caused amazement inside the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate’s Court when the matter was mentioned on Thursday.

Omel Jackson was reportedly returning to the Half-Way-Tree lock-up from the Supreme Court when a Nokia cellular phone was reportedly found in a false compartment of a styrofoam lunch box that he had in his possession.

“One lives and learns. I didn’t realise that a false compartment could be on a styrofoam box,” Jackson’s lawyer, CJ Mitchell, remarked.

“I didn’t know that either,” said Magistrate Simone Wolfe-Reece.

“I hope that the officer kept this false compartment so that we all can see it,” she said amidst laughter.

However, before the allegations were read, Mitchell, who was of the impression that the contraband was ganja, told the court that it was found near a lunch box, which was intended for another inmate.

But when he was told that the contraband in question was a cellular phone, he told the magistrate that he would have to get further instructions from his client.

Jackson was therefore remanded and the matter was set for mention on December 5.

Thief runs into the arms of the law

A young man, who reportedly stole a travelling bag with a passport and ran straight into the arms of the police, was ordered to fork out $60,000 or serve five months in prison.

The Corporate Area Resident Magistrate’s Court heard that on the day in question men were delivering goods on Orange Street in downtown Kingston when the accused, Kingsley Hunter, walked past the men and went inside the delivery truck and took up the bag.

Hunter reportedly placed the bag over his neck and proceeded to run, but was stopped in his tracks by police officers whom he encountered on his run.

However, when the matter was mentioned in court on Wednesday, Hunter told Magistrate Lorna Shelly Williams that he was not guilty as he had found the bag.

“To be honest, I was walking past the truck when I see the bag on the ground and take it up and same time me see a gentleman pop off him knife an’ run me down and when him hold me, me a try explain but him nah gi mi nuh chance,” Hunter said.

“Me have a young daughter, me didn’t steal it,” he added.

But the magistrate was not convinced of his innocence and explained to him that there was a charge called larceny by finding.

“You can’t just see a bag and pick it up and walk away with it,” she said.

Hunter was then asked to state his plea to larceny by finding, but maintained his innocence. As a result, a lawyer was asked to assist him by explaining the charge while the matter was stood down.

On resumption, Hunter entered a plea of guilty.

Attorney Vincent Wellesley, who assisted him, told the magistrate that this was his first offence and asked her to take into consideration that he has an eight-month-old daughter and give him a suspended sentence.

But Shelly Williams told him that he had to pay a $60,000-fine.

Wellesley then tried to persuade her to reduce the fine, but she held firm to her decision, noting that she could only give Hunter six weeks to pay.

BlackBerry snatcher

A security guard, who is accused of snatching a police inspector’s Blackberry cellular phone while they were having a drink with friends at a police station, was last week offered bail on a charge of simple larceny.

The police inspector and the accused, George Edwards of Tarrant Drive in Kingston, along with other persons were reportedly at the canteen at the Half-Way-Tree Police Station on September 28, about 11:39 in the night when the phone went missing.

It is reported that the inspector placed his phone on a table around which they were all seated and left the table. On his return, he did not see the cellular phone, or Edwards.

The phone, which is valued at $25,000 and is the property of the Commissioner of Police, was reportedly resold for $3,000, the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate’s Court heard.

However, the phone’s messenger service was used to track its whereabouts and it was later recovered from a woman in Clarendon who reportedly bought it from another woman who bought it from Edwards.

But on Thursday when Edwards appeared in court, he insisted that he had not stolen the phone.

“I bought the phone in Half-Way-Tree square,” he said.

He further explained that he bought the phone for $15,000 and sold it back to his son-inlaw for $3,000.

“Don’t you think it is a coincidence that your were with the inspector when the phone went missing and that you later bought it from someone in Half-Way-Tree?” Magistrate Lorna Shelly Williams asked.

“I was there, but I don’t know about it,” Edwards answered.

He was subsequently offered bail in the sum of $60,000 and is scheduled to return to court on November 27.

Mechanic in a pickle

A mechanic, who is accused of disappearing with a woman’s motor car after she gave it to him to fix, was remanded into custody on Thursday.

The Corporate Area Resident Magistrate’s Court heard that the complainant took her Chevrolet to Verel Williams’s garage in January of this year for him to repair the engine.

It is also alleged that the complainant gave Williams $30,000 as a downpayment on the job.

But the court heard that when the complainant returned to Williams’s garage at Mountain View in Kingston, she could not find him as he had scrapped her car and had relocated.

The complainant reported the matter and Williams was caught by the police in September. He was later charged with larceny of a motor car and breaches of the Tradesmen Act.

But on Thursday when he appeared before Magistrate Wolfe-Reece, Williams pleaded not guilty, claiming that he does not have a garage and that it was the complainant who had failed to return for her car.

“Ask her how much time me call her to come for the car cause it a hold up space, and you wah hear whey she tell me,” he said.

But the magistrate told him that she did not want to hear and that he should save the rest of his explanation for the trial on December 2.

Williams was then remanded into custody.