BY TASHIEKA MAIR, STAR Writer
WESTERN BUREAU
IN AN EFFORT to fully convince itself that a Hanover man is fit to face a charge of arson and malicious destruction of property, the Montego Bay Resident Magistrate's Court on Monday remanded him for further psychiatric assessment.
Twenty-six-year-old Dwayne Malcolm was the subject of a previous assessment that had indicated that he was not fit to plead.
RM Winsome Henry told defence attorney Ronald Paris, who argued that Malcolm had a drug problem, which was in some way responsible for his actions, that after hearing from the complainant, she is more convinced that it was an act of spite than one done under the influence of drugs.
The complainant alleges that Malcolm had threatened to kill her and her son and also threatened to burn her house.
The RM, therefore, asked that he be remanded in custody for further psychiatric assessment and that he be brought back to court on January 16.
It is alleged that on December 4, 2004 at 1 a.m., Malcolm went to a home in Porto Bello, St. James, in search of the complainant, with whom he shared a home. The occupant at the house told him the complainant was not there. He proceeded to throw stones at the house damaging some of the windows, and then left.
He went to a home in Farm Heights, St. James, where he and the complainant lived. It is further alleged that he went inside the house and removed his clothes and a component set.
Shortly after he left, neighbours saw smoke coming from a section of the house and alerted the Montego Bay Fire Brigade, but the house was completely destroyed by the time they got there. The complainant was not at home at the time. The value of the house and its contents is estimated at $400,000. Malcolm was apprehended sometime in October of this year.
Do
you have a problem? Is something bothering
you? Write to 
