After spending over five years on the run, a 29-year-old man from Barataria was deported from Grenada last week to face charges in relation to an armed robbery in 2003 which resulted in the death of a store clerk.
Obika Jabari Roberts, of Fifth Avenue, faced 11 charges, including manslaughter, when he appeared before Chief Magistrate Marcia Ayers-Caesar in the Port-of-Spain Magistrates’ Court on Monday.
He was remanded into custody and ordered to reappear in the San Fernando Magistrates’ Court next Monday.
According to a release from the T&T Police Service’s (TTPS) Public Affairs Unit yesterday, Roberts was arrested in Grenada last month, based on intelligence exchanges between local and Grenadian police and was deported after appearing before a magistrate court in Grenada for being an illegal immigrant in that country.
His charges include five charges of possession of a gun without a licence, four charges of possession of ammunition without a licence and one charge of discharging a firearm.
The charges stem from a robbery at a business place in Gasparillo on November 29, 2003 in which employee Arvin Bissoondial was shot dead.
In 2007, while on bail for the charges, Roberts was arrested and charged with arms and ammunition possession in connection to an unrelated incident in Malick, Barataria.
Roberts is alleged to have fled to Grenada two years later while on bail.