Farmer gets bail after two months in custody

A St Elizabeth farmer was on Monday offered bail, two months after being taken into custody.

Eaton Clarke has been charged with the fatal shooting of 36-year-old Ruel Russell on August 9 at his home in Cornwall Mountain in the parish.

Clarke was offered bail in the sum of $600,000 when he appeared in the St Elizabeth Parish Court.

As a condition of his bail, he is to report to the Lacovia police daily, while a nightly curfew was imposed and a stop order placed at all ports of exit.

INCOMPLETE CASE FILE

In court, it was disclosed that the case file is still incomplete, as several statements are still outstanding.

The court was told that at about 7:30 p.m., Russell was at his home with his common-law wife and children when he went outside to use a bathroom.

He was surprised by a lone gunman who fired one shot in his direction.

ESCAPE

Russell managed to escape and rushed back into the house. But the gunman followed him, kicked open the door and fired several other shots which caught him in the face and upper body.

The police were summoned and Russell was rushed to the Black River Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

The police recovered 11 spent shells from the scene. The rest of the family was unharmed.

Following investigations, Clarke was taken into custody on August 26. He was later charged with murder.

He is scheduled to return to court on December 12.