Man accused of killing T&T teacher remanded

Christopher Thomas, Gleaner Writer

WESTERN BUREAU:Ivan Taylor, the main suspect in the murder of Trinidadian schoolteacher Michelle Coudray-Greaves, was remanded until January 8, 2013 when he appeared in the Montego Bay Resident Magistrate's Court on Tuesday.

Forty-five-year-old Taylor, a taxi operator of Whithorn district in Westmoreland, was charged with Coudray-Greaves' death shortly after her burnt remains were found in a cane field on the outskirts of Montego Bay on June 11.

In court, attorney-at-law Morrel Beckford, who was standing in for Taylor's defence lawyer, Stacy-Ann Young, asked Resident Magistrate Sandria Wong-Small to lower the defendant's bail from its current amount of $200,000.

"We are asking if the bail offer could be reduced further, so Mr Taylor could take it up," said Beckford.

However, Wong-Small shot down the suggestion, arguing that she had already previously lowered Taylor's bail amount from an initial sum of $400,000.

"I have done everything I can do by reducing the amount to $200,000 with one, two or three sureties," said RM Wong-Small. "It is not a matter of the amount on the bond that is Mr Taylor's problem; it is a matter of him finding suitable persons to bail him.

"I also have a serious difficulty in granting him (Taylor) bail in his own surety because he is not from this parish, and it seems nobody knows him," the magistrate added.

During the hearing, the prosecution revealed that the DNA and forensic reports and telephone records were still outstanding from the case file and the dental report has still not yet been released.

Taylor was ordered to be returned to police custody until January 8 next year for the file to be completed, while the director of public prosecutions is to be approached for instructions regarding the dental report.