HAMILTON, Bermuda CMC – Runaway prisoner Alvone Maybury, dubbed the “Facebook Fugitive” after posting messages on his social networking web site page, has been charged in court with escaping lawful custody.
The 24-year-old, slightly-built Maybury, caught by police on Tuesday after two weeks on the run, was flanked by several police and prison guards during his brief appearance before Magistrate Khamisi Tokunbo on Wednesday.
Maybury was glum-faced and silent throughout the hearing and was not required to enter a plea to the charge.
He was surrounded by so many burly guards that when the magistrate went to read the charge, he first had to inquire: “Where’s Mr. Maybury?”
His handcuffs were removed during the court proceedings but he was brought in and out of the building amid tight security.
Maybury, of no fixed abode, fled from prison officers outside Magistrates’ Court while handcuffed on July 13 after being charged with three gun offences. Within hours he was posting messages on his Facebook page about life on the run, bragging that he was “free as a bird”.
His exploits hit the headlines with newspapers around the world carrying the story. He was found hiding in a wooden shed behind a house in the central parish of Pembroke.
The magistrate remanded him into custody until August 6 when a preliminary hearing is scheduled to begin.
Both the gun charges and the escaping custody charge will eventually be dealt with in Supreme Court.
A young man and young woman were also arrested with Maybury on suspicion of aiding him in evading justice.
Meanwhile, in a separate case a woman who rented an apartment where fugitive Omari Gordon, on the run for more than a year, was found earlier this year has been cleared of harbouring him from justice.
Magistrate Tokunbo said the evidence against Davina Ratteray, 44, was “so weak and tenuous” it did not support the charges she faced of obstructing justice and conspiracy to obstruct justice, which she denied.
Police arrested Gordon, 27, at premises in Sandys parish in January after a 13-month manhunt.
He allegedly fled after firing shots at police officers in Middletown in November 2008 and has since been charged with firearms offences, which he denies.
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