Ornest James and Linden Flavious — whom the court heard hired a taxi driver to take them around Georgetown only to stab him several times and rob him by gunpoint — were moments ago remanded to prison on a joint attempted murder charge.
The men are accused of pointing a gun to the head of taxi driver Derick Nelson while stabbing him several times about his body and relieving him of his cash and jewellery.
James, 25, of 179 Old Road Eccles, East Bank Demerara and Flavious, 31, a construction worker of Agricola, East Bank Demerara, both appeared before Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan in the Georgetown Magistrates’ Courts.
The men were not required to plead to the indictable charge which stated that they, on July 11, 2019, at John Fernandes Squatting Area, unlawfully and maliciously wounded Derick Nelson with the intent to commit murder.
James was represented by attorney-at-law Adrian Thompson who asked that his client be released on reasonable bail. According to the lawyer, James is the sole breadwinner for his family.
However, Police Prosecutor Neville Jeffers made serious objections to bail being granted to the defendants on the grounds of the serious nature of the allegation and the fact that the victim is still hospitalised in a serious condition.
The prosecutor also based his objections on the grounds that the incident was captured on CCTV footage and that the defendants were positively identified by the victim.
Facts presented by the prosecutor stated that on the day in question, Nelson was hired by the defendants to be taken to the West Back Road. The court heard the men got into the vehicle and, during the journey, Flavious held the victim at gunpoint while James dealt him several stabs about his body with an ice-pick. The men then relieved Nelson of an undisclosed sum of cash and his jewellery before making good their escape.
The badly injured taxi driver then crashed his vehicle into a pile of wood and was taken to the Georgetown Public Hospital where he remains a patient in a serious condition.
The matter was reported, an investigation was carried out, and the two men were arrested and charged with the offence.
The magistrate, after listening to the facts, remanded the men to prison until August 6.
