An alleged burglar, who has been at HMP Dodds Prison for the past nine months and wants to get home to spend Christmas with his baby girl, remains on remand at the St Philip institution.
Magistrate Douglas Frederick told Kemar Romal Griffith of Woodsland, Grazettes, St Michael, he was not a fit and proper candidate for bail.
Griffith, who is in his mid-twenties, is accused of trespassing on the Silver Fox Arcade on October 13, 2016 and stealing a $400 safe, $10,366 in cash, a $400 laptop belonging to Palace Amusement, as well as an $800 cellular phone and $189.75 belonging to Che Nurse.
It is also alleged that he had a firearm with him at the time as well as on October 19, 2016 when he is accused of entering the home of Robert Hawkesworth as a trespasser and stealing a $3,000 television, a $600 tablet, a $300 cellular phone, $300 sunglasses, a $50 car key and seven keys worth $35.
“I asking for a chance Sir. It hard on my child mother. All these allegations I know nothing about Sir,” Griffith told the magistrate in the No.1 District ‘A’ Magistrates’ Court.
“Christmas coming up Sir. I don’t want to be in jail. My little girl is 19 months and I in jail for nine months,” he added.
However, Frederick said: “I cannot in all good conscience give you bail. You [were given] bail for like five house break-ins . . . . I have a duty to protect society [and] you do not take bail very seriously.”
Pointing out that one of Griffith’s cases was currently being heard and that he also had “too many cases” pending in the system, the magistrate maintained “I can’t [grant bail] again”.
The accused man returns to court on November 7.