Two brothers, 39 year old Peter Smith and 34 year old Errol Smith, who had been arrested and charged jointly with beating and chopping a barmaid with a machete last year, were each released on $300,000 bail when they appeared in the Old Harbour Criminal Court.
According to reports, on June 25, 2009, the complainant reportedly made insulting remarks about the Smiths’ sister. The brothers allegedly went to the complainant’s bar, where one used a machete to chop her in the face and on the hand. She reportedly ran out of the bar in a bid to escape, and both brothers allegedly attacked her with stones (which hit her in the head).
A report was made and arrest warrants were drawn for the brothers. They were arrested in January of this year, and charged with Wounding With Intent. They are to return to court on May 27, when the matter will again be mentioned.
Residents of some communities in Old Harbour, St. Catherine are reportedly being plagued for the last three months by a sniper of some sort, someone firing metal balls from what is believed to be an air gun or bebe gun at unsuspecting residents. The perpetrator reportedly drives through the communities usually between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. in a white Townace minivan, and the occupant fires at persons. At least a dozen residents have been attacked in this way so far, with welts and their swollen skin bearing the evidence.
According to the police, the residents have not made a formal report, thus no official investigation has been done into this matter.
Two women, who were entangled in a bloody brawl over a man that they both claimed to be their sweetheart, and who bit each other severely during the fight, were chased out of the Old Harbour Resident Magistrate’s court recently by St. Catherine Resident Magistrate, Simone Wolfe-Reece.
The two, Marlene Whittingham (41 year old, unemployed of Vere, Clarendon) and Claudette Bennett (46 year old secretary of Longville Park, Clarendon) ended up in court on charges of assault occasioning bodily harm to each other. Whittingham pleaded not guilty to biting Bennett on the hand, back and face and causing her bodily harm. However, after both women gave evidence, R.M. Wolfe-Reece admonished them for fighting over the man, and told them to get out of her sight. The women reportedly hung their heads and shame-facedly crept out of the court room.
Whittingham is to return to court on January 8, to face a charge of unlawfully wounding Bennett, during a fight over the same man in July, 2008.
