Residents in Dominica Protest Bail Hearing For American Murder-Accused Jonathan Lehrer

ROSEAU, Dominica – Residents from the southwest coast village of Soufriere vowed to resume their protest outside the High Court here later this week, as lawyers for American hotelier, Jonathan Lehrer, accused of murdering two people here in 2023, seek to have a variation of the bail provided to him last year.
Residents protest outside the High Court in Dominica on Monday (Photo courtesy Dominica Newsoneline)Lehrer, 57, and 62-year-old Robert Snyder Jr, another American national were charged with the murders of animation pioneer and Canadian philanthropist Daniel Langlois and his longtime partner, Dominique Marchand, 58.
The Americans were not required to enter a plea in the magistrate’s court, since murder is an indictable offence and can only be tried before a judge and jury at the High Court.
The prosecution alleges that between November 29 and December 2, 2023, the two Americans murdered Langlois and Marchand. Their bodies were found incinerated in a car near Gallion, in the south of the island where they owned a hotel. Langlois and Marchand had been reported missing for several days.
Last year, Lehrer through his lawyers had applied for bail on “medical grounds” to travel to the United States of America but that was denied.
Justice Colin Williams had last year outlined several conditions under which bail could be given to Lehrer. They include a one million dollar (One EC dollar=US$0.37 cents) bond with a proper and suitable surety. In addition, the murder accused must revoke his US Citizenship and he must satisfy the Registrar of the High Court that he has met all the conditions set out by the court.
His surety must have “total control over him” and he must first secure the approval of the High Court before he travels. He is also to report to the Grand Bay Police Station, south of here, as part of his bail conditions.
But as the lawyers sought to get Justice Williams to vary the bail, the residents of Soufriere and surrounding areas gathered at the High Court in the capital, expressing their outrage, chanting “No bail for Jonathan” and demanding justice for the victims.
One demonstrator told reporters that “the whole system just failed Dominica. They failed the Soufriere people. They should just go, man. No bail for Jonathan!”
Police had set up barriers to manage the protests and state prosecutor, Thomas Astaphan KC, later told reporters that the “judge has adjourned the matter to either Wednesday, Thursday or Friday of this week.
“The application to vary the bail, that has been adjourned to Wednesday, Thursday or Friday,” he said, adding “an application had been made for the terms and conditions for bail that had been granted to be changed. Basically that’s it.
The Court office will let us know. It has to do with the availability of the lead counsel for the accused person and him being available because he is due to appear before the Court of Appeal in Barbados on Wednesday. So we are trying to accommodate him.”
Astaphan said that the state is opposing the application for varying the bail conditions ”whole heartedly” reiterating “we have indicating our opposition to”.
Astaphan said he wanted to tell the Dominican public to “have faith, be patient, all will be well.
“Ultimately justice will be served one way or the next,” he added.