The Tribune

By LAMECH JOHNSON

Tribune Staff Reporter

ljohnson@tribunemedia.net

TWO Americans are one step closer to being tried in the Supreme Court in connection with the killing of a fellow countryman in Bimini.

Tyler Valles and Robert Schwarz returned to the Magistrates Court no 9 yesterday for their Voluntary Bill of Indictment because the Crown had not been in a position to proceed at the initial hearing on May 19.

This was not the case yesterday when prosecutor Abagail Farrington appeared for the Crown with a bundle of documents containing the case against the accused men.

In the brief proceedings, Chief Magistrate Joyann Ferguson-Pratt informed them of what the Bill contained and their right to enter an alibi.

After signing the document, both said they would submit an alibi to the Attorney General’s office in 21 days.

The chief magistrate further informed the pair that they were to appear in the Supreme Court on August 1 before Senior Justice Jon Isaacs to receive a date for their trial.

Valles, 19, and Schwarz, 62, are charged with the March 14 manslaughter of 45-year-old Carl David Yerder where it is alleged that together, they intentionally caused Yerder’s death.

Yerder, a resident of Fleetwood, Pennsylvania, was found lying in the grounds of a hotel with stab wounds. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

The accused were each granted $30,000 cash bail when arraigned in Magistrate’s Court five days later. Tommel Roker, an associate of lead lawyer Wayne Munroe, appeared for the accused in yesterday’s Bill presentation.