A 28-year-old man ac­cused of har­bour­ing the death row in­mate who es­caped from prison on Christ­mas Eve was yes­ter­day grant­ed $20,000 bail. Khris­ton Ash­by, of Fran­cis Road, Sad­dle Road, San Juan, was grant­ed bail when he reap­peared in the Port-of-Spain Mag­is­trates Court be­fore Mag­is­trate Cheron Raphael yes­ter­day.

Ash­by was re­mand­ed in cus­tody dur­ing his first court ap­pear­ance on Wednes­day, af­ter po­lice pros­e­cu­tors ob­ject­ed to bail be­cause his crim­i­nal record was not avail­able at the time. He is ac­cused of pre­vent­ing the ap­pre­hen­sion of con­vict­ed mur­der­er Dar­ryl Charles-Bis­soon by pro­vid­ing him with hous­ing and oth­er ameni­ties. The two were ar­rest­ed at Ash­by's home last Sat­ur­day.

Charles-Bis­soon al­so ap­peared in court on Wednes­day on a charge of es­cap­ing law­ful cus­tody. Charles-Bis­soon, of First Street, San Juan, is al­leged to have es­caped around 1 am on De­cem­ber 24, from the Port-of-Spain State Prison, Fred­er­ick Street, Port-of-Spain.

On Oc­to­ber 6 last year, Charles-Bis­soon was con­vict­ed in the Port-of-Spain As­sizes, along with An­der­son "Weasel" Mapp, for the mur­der of Col­in De Lan­dro. Both men were sen­tenced to hang. De Lan­dro was shot dead dur­ing a fam­i­ly lime at his Priz­gar Lands, San Juan, home, on May 28, 2005. Charles-Bis­soon will reap­pear in court to an­swer the charge on Jan­u­ary 30, while Ash­by's mat­ter was ad­journed to Feb­ru­ary 1. Nei­ther man has re­tained a lawyer to rep­re­sent him.