Three men appeared in swift succession in the Port-of-Spain Magistrates' Court, yesterday afternoon, charged with two murders.Kevon Cooper, 24, and Gregory Goodridge, 31, both of Duncan Street, Port-of-Spain, were charged with one murder and Shervon Grant, 31, of Petit Valley with the other. All three were remanded into custody when they appeared before Chief Magistrate Marcia Ayers-Caesar in the Eighth Court.Cooper and Goodridge were jointly charged with murdering 31-year-old Kellon Davis.
Davis was shot near his apartment at Nelson Street, Port-of-Spain, and died two days later at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital.The two also face two additional charges for being in possession of firearms and ammunition with intent to endanger life on the day of the shooting.Cooper was charged separately for being in possession of a pistol and eight rounds of ammunition when he was arrested at his home on June 8.The charges were laid indictably and they were not called upon to enter pleas.
Before the two were denied bail and told to return to court on July 8, their attorney Richard Clarke-Wills asked that they be sent to the Port-of-Spain State Prison at Frederick Street, saying they feared their lives would be in danger at the Maximum Security Prison in Arouca.Although Ayers-Caesar agreed to make a note of his concerns, she told Clarke-Wills the request was unnecessary since they would have been sent to the Arouca prison at their own request.
Clarke-Wills also told the court his clients had refused to give their fingerprints to police as a form of silent protest to declare their innocence. "They maintain that they had not been given an opportunity to know the case against them and will be relying on video evidence to exonerate them," Clarke-Wills said.Immediately after the two walked out of the courtroom in the custody of court and process police, Grant was led into the prisoner enclosure for his charge to be read to him.
He was charged with murdering Damian Alexander at Universal Bar in St James, last Saturday.Alexander, 35, was liming at the bar on Western Main Road when around 4 am he was stabbed in the neck with a broken beer bottle. He died while being treated at the St James Medical Facility.
Like the attorney who preceded him, Grant's lawyer, Fareed Ali, also asked for special measures to be put in place for his client's safety. However, Ali's request was to protect Grant from himself, as he claimed his client had tried to commit suicide after being arrested for Alexander's murder.He said for three days, while he was in a holding cell at the St James Police Station, Grant had to be handcuffed, as he continually headbutted the walls of the cell and tried to strangle himself with a chain he was wearing.
Ali suggested his client should be sent to the St Ann's Psychiatric Hospital for a mental health evaluation to prevent him from "causing harm to himself or others."Whereas Ayers-Caesar seemed sceptical about Ali's request at first, she eventually consented after police confirmed what Ali had said. Grant was remanded to the hospital and will reappear before her on June 26.