A Form Five student has been denied bail after appearing in court charged with shooting at Navita Premchand with intent to kill her.
Miguel Thompson, 18, appeared in the Siparia First Magistrates Court yesterday charged with five offences stemming from the incident.
Premchand, 32, is still warded in a critical condition at hospital.
Prosecutor Sgt Starr Jacob told Senior Magistrate Margaret Alert that doctors have advised her family to have “cautious hope” for her survival.
Premchand, 32, a cashier, was at her workplace Unique Books and Sports Centre two Fridays ago when two men entered and shot her.
She was shot five times on the face, hand, chest and leg.
Thompson was not called upon to plead to any of the charges which were laid by Sgt Ramsaran.
The charges alleged that on February 28 at Butler Ave, Fyzabad he had a firearm and ammunition with intent to endanger Premchand’s life, he was in possession of those items without being the holder of a Firearm Users Licence and that he shot at Premchand with intent to murder her.
The prosecution informed the court that they will be proceeding via paper committal with approximately 25 witness statements from 18 witnesses.
Thompson’s attorney Darryl Mitchell sent a message to the court asking that the matter be adjourned to 1 pm.
The magistrate did not grant his request.
Instead, attorney Ramnarine Soorjansingh held for Mitchell and made a bail application for Thompson.
Soorjansingh said the accused is in Form Five and was preparing to sit the CSEC exams. .
He said the teenager lived with his father and had no previous convictions or pending matters.
However, Jacob objected to bail on the grounds that Thompson was facing multiple serious offences, the prevalence of those offences in society and that the victim is still in a critical condition.
Saying that she was in “total agreement” with the prosecutor’s grounds of objection, the magistrate noted that some of the charges carry life imprisonment sentences.
Thompson was remanded into custody and advised of his right to apply to the High Court for bail.
The matter was adjourned to April 6.
