Court sets date for child kidnapping trial

Court sets date for child kidnapping trial

De’Edra Gibson remains on bail

NASSAU, BAHAMAS — A woman accused of abducting several children in New Providence will not go to trial until 2020.

Justice Bernard Turner set a July 20 trial date during a status hearing yesterday.The judge said the date would be more convenient for the four underage boys allegedly abducted as they would be on summer break from school.

In April, natural hairstylist De’Edra Gibson, 29, was charged before Magistrate Samuel McKinney with four counts of child stealing.

Turner questioned the Crown on why the four counts of child stealing could not be tried together to which the Crown replied that the matter could be. Howard Thompson Jr., who represents Gibson, told the court that the defense has an expert witness to give evidence regarding Gibson’s psychological report.

Gibson remains on bail. She must attend psychiatric clinics as a bail condition. She is due back in court of September 19 for case management. If convicted, Gibson faces a maximum sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment.

During her arraignment last Friday, Gibson denied kidnapping the young boys.

Prosecutors allege that Gibson took a three-year old boy who was riding his bicycle on February 16, and three eight-year-old boys on March 6, March 7 and March 29.

During an earlier court appearance, Thompson Jr. told McKinney that his client has a history of mental illness.

He said just last October, Gibson spent time in the psychiatric ward of the Brookdale University Hospital in New York. Apsychiatric report from the Sandilands Rehabilitation Center presented in the magistrate’scourt in Maydeemed that Gibson wasfit to enter a plea to the charges brought against her.

About Matthew Moxey

Matthew Moxey is a broadcast reporter with Eyewitness News and also serves as the station’s morning radio news anchor for 103.5 The Beat. He joined Eyewitness News as an intern, which led to him becoming a full-time broadcast reporter with the news station. Some of his notable work includes his correspondence with international networks such as CNN, FOX and NBC; his reporting on the COVID-19 pandemic; and his live coverage of monster storm Hurricane Dorian.