A person of interest in a murder investigation, who is accused of serving as a lookout in an unrelated burglary, in which a bag of chips was stolen, has been granted bail by the Summary Court.
Antascio Terrell Rankine, of East End, who turned himself in to police on 28 Dec., was arrested on suspicion of murder, in connection with the shooting death of Sven Connor, but was not charged in that ongoing investigation.
However, he was charged in relation to a burglary at The One Stop Shop grocery store in North Side, which occurred on 6 Nov. He was remanded in custody and transferred to Northward Prison.
During an initial bail hearing on Tuesday, 2 Jan., Rankine’s application was deferred, pending an examination of a potential address to which he could be released. The following day, when proceedings resumed before Summary Court Magistrate Vanessa Allard, Senior Crown Counsel Sarah Lewis told the court the prosecution was opposing bail on several grounds.
“The Crown’s case is one of three persons acting in concert to burgle a grocery store,” said Lewis. “The defendant, together with another person that is believed to have been Roland Welcome and an unidentified woman, were caught on camera hanging out near the grocery store before disappearing to the back where attempts were made to gain entry to the store through a laundry room which was adjoined to the building.”
According to Lewis, the target was money the suspects believed was on the premises, associated with a cash-exchange business that was also conducted at the grocery store.
Stolen bag of chips
“When attempts to gain access through the back failed, they then turned their attention to the front, where a window was broken and a bag of chips stolen,” added Lewis.
Pointing to Rankine’s prior convictions, she told Allard there were 10 convictions which spanned between 2012 and 2018.
“There are convictions for four violent offences, two ganja offences, two firearms offences and two other offences,” she said.
Turning her attention to the ongoing murder investigation, Lewis told the court that although Rankine had not been charged, police were concerned that if he were released, he might “interfere with witnesses and/or tamper with evidence”.
“We are also worried for his safety, as he has received threats from Mr. Welcome, who is the other person of interest in the murder investigation,” said Lewis, adding that Welcome continues to evade officers.
Rebutting the prosecution’s submissions, Rankine’s attorney Prathna Bodden told the court that “although the prosecution was doing their job by muddying the waters”, the court should not lose focus on the matter on hand – the burglary.
“We are here to address a burglary charge for a bag of crisps, which my client denies,” said Bodden. “Even if he was to be convicted, given his lack of convictions for offences of dishonesty, the court would likely impose a community order sentence.”
She added, “To suggest that he should be held in custody until there is enough evidence to build a case against him or that he should be kept in custody to prevent him from interfering with another case is in contravention of the bail law, and simply isn’t with keeping with open justice.”
Bodden told the court that it would be wrong to deny Rankine bail due to any ongoing murder investigations as the police themselves released him on bail because of a lack of supporting evidence to charge him.
When granting him bail, Allard, noting that Rankine does not have a history of failing to surrender, imposed several stringent conditions, which include a curfew, a requirement to reside at a specific address, to surrender all travel documents, and to wear an electronic monitoring tag.
Related Videos
