Three St James men pleaded not guilty yesterday on charges of armed robbery and attempted rape. The trio—Leekemus Murphy, 20, of Isaac Terrace, Bournes Road; Jessie Walters, 19, of Bombay Street and Solomon Harridan, 19, of Brunton Road—were charged by PC Nicholas Nurse of the Western Division Task Force. They appeared before Port-of-Spain magistrate Halcyon Yorke-Young. They are charged with robbing a St James couple of $30,310 in cash and jewelry last Saturday.
They are also charged with demanding $2,500 with intent to steal, possession of a gun and a knife and while in possession of the gun and knife robbery of the couple, using violence. Harridan has an additional charge of possession of an imitation gun, marijuana and assaulting PC Nurse.
Murphy also is charged separately with attempting to rape the woman and possession of a Smith and Wesson pistol and ten rounds of ammunition. They are scheduled to reappear before a Port-of-Spain magistrate tomorrow for bail because their criminal records were unavailable yesterday. The men were arrested on Saturday after police responded to a report in the area.