Derek Achong

A man from Bel­mont, ac­cused of killing a fel­low res­i­dent in 2014, has be­come the first per­son to be grant­ed bail for mur­der. 

De­liv­er­ing a de­ci­sion, a short while ago, High Court Mas­ter Nali­ni Singh up­held Joel King's bail ap­pli­ca­tion based on a re­cent Court of Ap­peal rul­ing on the con­sti­tu­tion­al­i­ty of pre­clud­ing ju­di­cial of­fi­cers from con­sid­er­ing bail for per­sons charged with mur­der. 

King, who is ac­cused of mur­der­ing Nkosi Har­richa­ran at Her­mitage Road in Bel­mont on April 15, 2014, was grant­ed $1.5 mil­lion bail with a sure­ty and was giv­en a cash al­ter­na­tive of $575,000. 

In her de­ci­sion, Mas­ter Singh ruled that al­though the State's case against King may be po­ten­tial­ly strong, the Of­fice of the Di­rec­tor of Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tions (DPP) failed to prove that King would ab­scond if grant­ed bail with strict con­di­tions. 

In to­tal, Mas­ter Singh ap­plied 21 con­di­tions to King's bail. 

Un­der the con­di­tions, King is to re­port to the Bel­mont Po­lice Sta­tion twice week­ly; to re­side by his moth­er's home at Rigs­by Street in Bel­mont and not leave be­tween 6 pm and 6 am un­less it is for an emer­gency. 

He was or­dered to not con­tact or com­mu­ni­cate with State wit­ness­es or come with­in 100 feet of them. 

Mas­ter Singh al­so barred him from op­er­at­ing a li­cenced or PH taxi, from vis­it­ing a bar or restau­rant sell­ing al­co­hol and from par­ties. 

He was or­dered to re­main in Trinidad and was told that he could not be found on a boat or air­plane. 

Mas­ter Singh or­dered that he can­not ap­ply for a pass­port or divers' li­cence whilst on bail. 

She stat­ed that any breach of the con­di­tions in­clu­sive of be­ing charged for an­oth­er crim­i­nal of­fence would re­sult in the im­me­di­ate re­vo­ca­tion of his bail. 

The Of­fice of the At­tor­ney Gen­er­al was ini­tial­ly de­nied a sus­pen­sion of the Court of Ap­peal's rul­ing on the is­sue, but is ex­pect­ed to raise the is­sue again in an ur­gent ap­peal be­fore the Unit­ed King­dom-based Privy Coun­cil. 

King was rep­re­sent­ed by Lar­ry Williams and Toni Roberts, while Veon­na Neale-Munroe and Chanelle Moe rep­re­sent­ed the State.