ROSEAU, Dominica, CMC – High Court judge, Justice Colin Williams Wednesday reserved judgment in an application brought by the prosecution seeking to revoke the bail granted to murder accused Johnathan Lehrer.
Last month, Justice Williams outlined several conditions under which bail could be given to Lehrer, an American hotelier, including a one million dollar (One EC dollar=US$0.37 cents) bond with a proper and suitable surety.
Lehrer is accused of the double murder of Quebec philanthropist Daniel Langlois and his partner Dominique Marchand.
In December last year, murder charges were filed against Lehrer, 57, and his co-accused 62-year-old Robert Snyder Jr., over the deaths of Langlois and Marchand.
The Americans were not required to enter a plea in the magistrate’s court, since murder is an indictable offence and can only be tried before a judge and jury at the High Court.
The prosecution alleges that between November 29 and December 2, 2023, the two Americans murdered Langlois and Marchand. Their bodies were found incinerated in a car near Gallion, in the south of the island where they owned a hotel. Langlois and Marchand had been reported missing for several days.
The preliminary inquiry into the murders began this week but has since been adjourned to February 10 next year.
Director of Public Prosecutions, Sherma Dalrymple and lead counsel for the state, Kings Counsel Thomas Astaphan, addressed the court on the application, telling reporters afterwards that certain new information had come to light.
“We made the application before His Lordship for the revocation of the bail granted to Mr. Lehrer on the 26th of November. His Lordship has reserved his judgement for consideration and we made until His Lordship has made his decision,” said Astaphan, adding that he is not yet comfortable to put in the public domain, the grounds for the application.
“All I can say it is our opinion that the information that we had was sufficient to ground the application and we acted upon it. I don’t want to give any details,” he said, adding “it is my opinion that the information we had was sufficiently grave a nature for us to make the application”.
Dalrymple said the application was made after acquiring new information.
“We put this new information before the court and we are leaving the decision up to the court,” she said, adding “it is in the interest of justice that the new information be brought to the court…and this is why we are bringing this matter up”.
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