By LAMECH JOHNSON
Tribune Staff Reporter
ljohnson@tribunemedia.net
A TEENAGER was one of two individuals who appeared in Magistrate’s Court yesterday afternoon for separate murder arraignments.
The 17-year-old of Yellow Elder Gardens, who cannot be named because he is a minor, was arraigned before Magistrate Kara Turnquest-Deveaux on a murder charge concerning the Friday, November 19, death of Mario Bain.
He was charged with murder under Section 291 (1)(B) of the Penal Code. A charge under this section does not attract the discretionary death penalty if a conviction is reached at the end of trial.
On the day in question, Bain, 25, was walking in the area of Nichol’s Court in Yellow Elder Gardens when a gunman emerged from a black Honda and shot him before speeding off.
Bain was pronounced dead on the scene by EMS personnel.
Magistrate Turnquest-Deveaux informed the accused that he would not be allowed to enter a plea because his case would be fast-tracked to the Supreme Court.
This would occur through service of a voluntary bill of indictment (VBI), scheduled for January 17, 2017.
He will be remanded to the Simpson Penn Centre for Boys in the interim.
In another murder arraignment, this time before Chief Magistrate Joyanne Ferguson-Pratt, 28-year-old Adrian Knowles was accused of intentionally causing the death of Coleman Edgecombe on November 14.
Edgecombe, 21, was shot in the head during an argument outside a nightclub shortly after midnight on Arundel Street.
Knowles, too, was charged with murder under Section 291 (1)(B) of the Penal Code and will not be called on to enter a plea to the allegation until he is formally arraigned before a judge of the Supreme Court.
He is also scheduled to receive his VBI on January 17, 2017.
Given the nature of the charge, he was denied bail and remanded to the Department of Correctional Services.
However, he was advised of his right to apply for bail in the higher court. He was not represented in his arraignment.
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