By LAMECH JOHNSON
Tribune Staff Reporter
ljohnson@tribunemedia.net
TWO men were remanded to prison yesterday after being arraigned in connection with two separate murders that occurred in the capital last week.
Wanted suspect 45-year-old Ronald Nottage was brought before Chief Magistrate Joyann Ferguson-Pratt accused of intentionally causing the death of Valdrise Bowleg on June 7.
He was charged with murder under Section 291 (1)(B) of the Penal Code. A charge under this section does not attract the discretionary death penalty if a conviction is reached at the end of trial.
According to police reports, shortly after 12.30am on the day in question, police received information that a woman had been found by her neighbours stabbed to death at her home on Peter Street.
When officers arrived on the scene, they found the lifeless body of a woman with multiple stab wounds.
She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Chief Magistrate Ferguson-Pratt informed the accused that he would not be allowed to enter a plea until he is formally arraigned before a judge in the Supreme Court as his case would be fast-tracked to the higher court.
This would occur through service of a voluntary bill of indictment, scheduled for July 20.
Due to the nature of the charge, he was denied bail and remanded to the Department of Correctional Services.
However, he has the right to apply to the Supreme Court for bail.
In the second murder arraignment before Chief Magistrate Ferguson-Pratt, 28-year-old Ricardo Russell was accused of intentionally causing the death of Livingston Rolle on June 5 and robbing him at gunpoint of an undetermined amount of cash.
Rolle was shot multiple times and killed in front of his home off Okra Hill Road around 5pm on Whit Monday.
Russell was also told that his case would be fast-tracked to the Supreme Court for trial on July 20. He too was denied bail and remanded into custody because of the nature of the charge.
He has retained attorney Nathan Smith to represent him against the murder and armed robbery charges.
Nottage was not represented at yesterday’s arraignment.
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