A 27-year-old man who plead­ed not guilty to rob­bery and as­sault charges stem­ming from an Oc­to­ber 24 in­ci­dent in Rio Claro was de­nied bail yes­ter­day by a San Fer­nan­do Mag­is­trate.

Akiel Alexan­der, a labour­er, of Pond Street, La Ro­maine, was re­mand­ed in­to cus­tody by Mag­is­trate Am­i­na De­onar­i­nesingh on one count of rob­bery with vi­o­lence and as­sault with in­tent to rob af­ter be­ing charged on Oc­to­ber 29 by PC Sook­wah of the Rio Claro Crim­i­nal In­ves­ti­ga­tions De­part­ment (CID).

Alexan­der was ar­rest­ed on Oc­to­ber 27 by San Fer­nan­do CID de­tec­tives in con­nec­tion with an­oth­er rob­bery re­port in the South­ern Di­vi­sion where he was al­leged­ly found to be in pos­ses­sion of a cell phone from the Oc­to­ber 24 in­ci­dent.

He will reap­pear be­fore the Rio Claro Mag­is­trates’ Court on No­vem­ber 10 to an­swer the charges.

Ac­cord­ing to po­lice re­ports, at 7.20 pm on Oc­to­ber 24, a 67-year-old woman and her 83-year-old hus­band were at their Rio Claro home when they were ac­cost­ed by three men.

Po­lice were told that the men, all wear­ing mask cov­er­ing their face and head, start­ed beat­ing them and de­mand­ing mon­ey.

Dur­ing the at­tack, the woman was al­leged­ly made to hand over $3,000, a Sam­sung cell phone and a small quan­ti­ty of gold jew­ellery.

The men then fled from the scene and po­lice were con­tact­ed.