WESTERN BUREAU:
A MONTEGO BAY Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) bus driver, who is facing charges of murdering his Canadian-born wife, was offered a $500,000 bail with one surety when he appeared in the Montego Bay Resident Magistrate's court on Monday.
Clarence Williams, 36, of a Greenwood, St James address, was ordered to surrender his travel documents to the police and to report to the Barrett Town police every Thursday between the hours of 6:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m.
Meanwhile, the court was told that forensic reports had shown that the dead woman, Mrs. Eleanor Williams, had poison in her system as traces of pesticides and analgesic were found in her system.
The prosecution had been waiting for the further forensic report to complete the file and June 5 was set as the date for preliminary examinations to start in the matter.
Clerk of the Court, Mrs. Sandria Wong Small, admitted that the Crown's evidence against Mr. Williams was at best "circumstantial".
Williams' attorney-at-law, George Thomas, told the court that "except great suspicion, the police has nothing" against his client.
The attorney told the court his client "might have lied" about where he was when his wife was killed adding that "everything will come out in due time. Man just married will tell lies and we will explain why."
Williams was arrested in early March after alibis as to where he was when his wife was killed failed to pan out. He had called police after he told them he came home at about 1:30 a.m. to find his wife lying on the couch in their living room with her throat cut.
He said he had left the home the previous afternoon to go visit his teenaged son in Kingston, it was also learned but the younger Williams told the police that he never saw his father that day.
The court had also heard that Mrs. Williams' wedding bands and $25,000, which was all the money they had in the house, were also missing but they were located on the premises as well.
