An East Dry River woman who has been remanded since 2013 for murder of a man has been granted bail by a High Court judge.
Justice Kathy Ann Waterman-Latchoo granted Malika St Louis bail of $600,000 with two sureties and orders that she must report to the Besson Street police station every day between 6 am and 6 pm; present herself to the court within a week of accessing bail and abide by a daily home-curfew between 8 pm and 5 am.
St Louis was intimately involved with the victim, Robert Bob, and claimed she stabbed him in self-defence
St Louis’s attorneys Wayne Sturge, Alexia Romero and Ameera Khan made the bail application in March, a month after the Court of Appeal paved the way for anyone accused of murder to apply for bail.
There were seven bail hearings before Waterman-Latchoo before she granted the application on Tuesday.
In the application, St Louis’ attorneys said the prosecution’s case was based principally on an interview which is being challenged by the defence.
It is alleged that on April 16, 2013, at Old Trainline, St Margaret's, Claxton Bay, St Louis went to a bar next to a grocery store where Bob worked.
When he got to the bar with his brother, she and the two men began drinking, and sometime later, it is alleged, Bob told her to leave the bar and pack her belongings from his home, while spewing obscenities at her.
She allegedly left the bar and got into an altercation with Bob, who was striking her on the head and face.
It is alleged she reached for a keychain with a knife and, with her eyes closed, swung at Bob, stabbing him several times.
In the bail application, the attorneys say St Louis has a defence of provocation available to her at trial.
St Louis was committed to stand trial on October 21, 2021.
The application also said checks with the San Fernando magistrates court revealed that the committal bundle has not yet been sent to the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and that was not likely to happen in less than another calendar year. It also referred to statements by the DPP of the interval between the receipt of committal bundles and the filing of an indictment, saying there was a real likelihood that St Louis’ pre-trial detention would continue for at least another five years.
It further said after an indictment is eventually filed, given the number of cases, the constraints on human and other resources of the Judiciary and the State, St Louis was likely to wait another three years or more before going on trial.
Prosecutor Danielle Thompson resisted the application.
The Privy Council's decision on the State's appeal of the bail-for-murder decision of the Appeal Court is expected to be delivered soon.
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