Linden man gets High Court bail for murder of businesswoman

Asdino Bowen, who was on remand at the Mazaruni Prison for the offence of murder, was granted bail by High Court Judge Simone Morris-Ramlall on Friday. He was represented by Dexter Todd.
Bowen was charged with the murder of Linden businesswoman Shivon Gordon, who was gunned down during a robbery in May 2015.
He appeared in the Linden Magistrate’s Court and upon completion of the preliminary inquiry in May 2017, he was committed to stand trial in the High Court of Demerara.
The preliminary inquiry was reopened in April 2019 and Bowen was again committed to stand trial for murder in 2020.
Despite being committed to stand trial for murder since 2020, his name had never appeared on the Criminal Assizes Session in the High Court of the Supreme Court of Judicature (Criminal Jurisdiction).
As such, through his Attorney-at-Law Dexter Todd, the accused made an application on December 16, 2022, to the High Court of the Supreme Court of Judicature for bail pending his murder trial.
The State in their defence of the application indicated that the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) had made a second request for a reopening of the Preliminary Inquiry of Bowen but there was no indication on any document of whether that was done.
While the State indicated in its defence that the presiding Magistrate at the time confirmed that he reopened the preliminary inquiry for the second time, there was no evidence to prove same.
The State highlighted that they were “awaiting word” on the reopening of the preliminary inquiry as well as depositions from said reopening.
Justice Morris-Ramlall on the first hearing of the application did not accept the response by the State and while she did not grant Bowen bail on that occasion, she instructed the prosecutors in the matter to get all the necessary information needed and file a supplementary affidavit in defence highlighting the reason Bowen’s name was never on the Criminal Assizes Session in the High Court of the Supreme Court of Judicature (Criminal Jurisdiction) and all the relevant information as to his various preliminary inquiries.
In their supplementary affidavit in defence, the prosecution indicated that the clerk of court perused Bowen’s file and found that the second preliminary inquiry was opened in June 2021 and that the file was uplifted on January 4, 2023, to compile the depositions of the preliminary inquiry.
This highlighted that Bowen was never indicted for murder, a very important aspect to the process.
As a result, Justice Morris-Ramlall agreed with defence lawyer Todd that the constitutional rights of the accused were infringed by this delay and therefore granted bail in the sum of $750,000 along with the condition that he must report to the Police every Friday until his trial for murder in the High Court is completed.
It was reported that Gordon and her husband, Elon Gordon, were about to enter their Wismar Linden home when they were confronted by several gunmen.
One of the robbers, armed with a gun, confronted Shivon, who had disembarked from her canter in front of her home, and demanded the bag she was carrying.
One of the men fired two rounds in the air while Gordon struggled with the other but she was eventually shot while maintaining possession of the bag.
Bowen along with two others, Robin Maxwell Thomas of West Ruimveldt, Georgetown, and Anthony Primo of Laing Avenue, Georgetown, were initially charged with the murder.