Two years after police charged a then 20-year-old with murder, the prosecution is still without a file.
And it was that fact which helped now 22-year-old Rackeem “Rats” Shaquille Alleyne, a former mechanic, secure bail in the High Court yesterday.
Alleyne, of Golden Rock, The Pine, St Michael, was charged with the May 12, 2016 murder of Scherno Rose.
Rose, 40, and a father of two, was gunned down in an alleged drive-by shooting as he limed at a shop a short distance away from his house in Neil’s Tenantry, St Michael.
Yesterday, attorney Lalu Hanuman applied for bail for the youngster after a prosecutor from the Director of Public Prosecutions’ office admitted there was still no file.
This disclosure came after Justice Pamela Beckles had ordered, last December in a previous bail application, that there be disclosure of the file and documents by March 6 this year.
Justice Beckles, presiding in the No. 5 Supreme Court, told both sides that while the accused did have other pending charges, he had no previous convictions. As a result, she said he was innocent until proven otherwise by a jury.
The judge then granted Alleyne $100 000 bail with up to four sureties and ordered him off the streets from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.
She also ordered him to report to Central Police Station every Monday, Wednesday and Friday by 10 a.m. and to live with his aunt at Stanley Terrace, The Pine.
She confiscated his travel documents as well.
The accused returns to the District “A” Magistrates’ Court, before Magistrate Kristie Cuffy-Sargeant, tomorrow on the murder charge. (HLE)