Dancehall Artiste Laden To Apply For Bail Tomorrow

Popular dancehall artiste Laden, whose real name is Okeefe Aarons, will appear in the parish court in Santa Cruz tomorrow to face charges of illegal possession of firearm and illegal possession of ammunition.

Laden will be represented by attorney-at-law Charles Benbow.

“I cannot divulge what will be my client’s plea before the courts, but he will be appearing tomorrow in the Santa Cruz court before senior parish court Judge Ann-Marie Granger,” Benbow told DancehallMag.

“My client is looking forward to his day in court to have his name vindicated. Bail will be the foremost and fundamental objective tomorrow,” he added.

However, Benbow admitted that the chances were slim given that the “investigating officer will be sending the alleged firearm to Kingston for ballistic testing to see if it used in the commission of any crime on record and that can take two to three weeks”.

However, Laden’s celebrity may trump those considerations in the eyes of the court.

Two other males, one of whom is a minor, who were reportedly in the company of the artiste, are facing similar charges. The other man has been identified as 21-year-old Saaion Ebanks, a labourer of Nembhard Town in St Elizabeth. These two will be represented by attorney-at-law M. Levine.

The three males were arrested last Wednesday night after a firearm was reportedly ditched along a roadside in the parish after they were approached by a police patrol team.

Senior Superintendent Stephanie Lindsay, head of the police’s Corporation Communications Unit (CCU), confirmed reports of the incident.

She said the driver of a black Mercedes Benz motorcar in which the entertainer was reportedly traveling with two other occupants, was signaled to stop by law enforcers in Cheapside, St Elizabeth.

Reports from the Black River police are that the incident happened at about 10:40 pm. The driver initially complied with the instruction, but sped off when the police approached the unit.

The police gave chase and reportedly saw when something was thrown from the vehicle before it was subsequently intercepted and the occupants were searched.

The police returned to the area where the object was reportedly thrown from the vehicle, and found a Hi-point 9mm pistol with a magazine containing one 9mm round of ammunition.

Laden rose to fame as a Digicel Rising Star top ten finalist under the stage name ‘Jim Laden’, and is known for songs like Time to Shine, Feelings too Heavy and Never Lonely.