Laden Bail Update

33-year-old dancehall artiste Laden who was arrested and charged along with two other men a couple of weeks ago on the 28th of October reportedly had his case aired in the Black River Resident Magistrate’s Court yesterday November 9th.

The “time to shine” artiste whose real name is Okeefe has been in police lockup for weeks now and was previously denied bail when the matter was presented before the court last Tuesday. Laden was not present at court on November 3rd, but with good reason, because he knew that the police would have not returned the ballistic result from the testing of the alleged firearm so soon.

One week later, Laden and his team are more optimistic about being granted bail, “Judge is awaiting the ballistic report from the police. The police gave a commitment that they would have the ballistic report available,” Laden’s attorney-at-law Charles Benbow stated.

However, it would appear that the Ballistic report is yet to be made available by the police and as a result, the deejay and his two co-accused will remain behind bars until their next court date.

Laden was charged with the illegal possession of a firearm with ammunition.

Attorney-at-law Charles Benbow earlier stated in an interview that he is looking forward to his client being “vindicated”.

As things stand, Laden will only be granted bail if the ballistic testing shows no signs of the weapon being used carry out any crime on record “Without that ballistic report coming back, the court will be reluctant to offer bail” Mr. Benbow stated.

The original report by the police is that Laden was traveling in a black Mercedes motor car after curfew hours, the car was signaled to stop by the police, the car reportedly stopped then sped off as the police approached.

A high-speed chase developed and the police reportedly saw an object being thrown from the sunroof of the vehicle at one point, the men were later apprehended and taken to the spot where the object was thrown out of the car, a search ensued and the police found a pistol with one round of ammunition.

Arrested and charged are Laden, 21-year-old Saaion Ebanks whose from a St Elizabeth address and a 16-year-old male, all three men were said to be in the vehicle when the incident happened.

If found guilty Laden could spend years in prison.