The Tribune

By LAMECH JOHNSON

Tribune Staff Reporter

ljohnson@tribunemedia.net

THE Court of Appeal is expected to decide on Friday whether accused murderer Donna Vasyli will be granted bail ahead of trial for her husband’s murder.

The ruling will occur two days after today’s expected presentation of a voluntary bill of indictment in the case of the 54-year-old widow concerning the March 24 fatal stabbing of millionaire podiatrist Phillip Vasyli at their Old Fort Bay home.

The indictment is a bundle of documents containing the Crown’s case against the widow and facilitates the transfer of the case from the Magistrate’s Court to the Supreme Court.

Mr Vasyli, 59, was found lifeless in the dining room of his luxury home with multiple stab wounds. He was the owner of four podiatry clinics – three in Sydney, Australia and one at the Old Fort Bay Medical Centre in New Providence.

Vasyli’s lawyers filed documents in the appellate court on May 4, days after Senior Justice Stephen Isaacs, who was ordered by the Court of Appeal to reconsider his initial refusal of bail a month ago, denied bail a second time to the accused.

In yesterday afternoon’s proceedings before Justices Anita Allen, Abdulai Conteh and Jon Isaacs, defence attorney Murrio Ducille said that the judge erred by arriving at the conclusion that he did without any evidence to support his findings.

Mr Ducille said the decision to deny bail was unreasonable given that his client has permanent residency and has not run afoul of the law since living in the Bahamas for the past 20 years.

He argued that the judge failed to give weight to the stringent conditions that could be imposed on Vasyli, who was willing to abide by them.

He also took issue with the judge mentioning in his judgment that Vasyli had offered nothing to disconnect her from the crime scene, as, according to law, the burden is on the Crown to prove its case against her.

Crown respondent Neil Braithwaite maintained the Crown’s opposition to the application. He noted that the appellate court itself, in the case of Jonathan Armbrister, said it should not interfere with the discretion of a judge to deny bail when the decision is reasonable.

The veteran prosecutor said that Senior Justice Isaacs had arrived at the decision after considering all of the matters before him in accordance with the Bail Act and previous decisions of the higher courts.

When asked by Justice Jon Isaacs if there was a possibility that Vasyli could be tried within a year of arraignment notwithstanding that cases are being fixed for 2017 or later, Mr Braithwaite replied that some cases have, in the past, been tried within a year of arraignment.

The judges said they would give their decision on Friday, May 22, at 10am.

Today’s VBI presentation is scheduled for noon before Chief Magistrate Joyann Ferguson-Pratt.