Jervis Valencia Hobbles to Court, Arraigned for Murder and Battery of Related Charges

Jervis Valencia

A bloodbath on Mayflower Street on the night of March fourth ended in the death of a Belize City resident, left another man injured and the alleged assailant under police guard at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital.  That is after thirty-three-year-old Jervis Valencia was shot by police responding to the scene of the deadly incident.  Valencia had been shot in the neck and upper part of the chest when he reportedly turned his weapon on the officers.  He was discharged earlier today and immediately escorted to the magistrates’ court where he was slapped with a battery of charges, including murder.  On the night in question thirty-six-year-old Moses Gonguez and twenty-three-year-old Triston Gordon, along with four others, were standing inside a yard on Mayflower Street when they came under assault.  The violent spray of bullets killed Gonguez on the spot and left Gordon with a gunshot wound to the leg.  This afternoon at three o’clock, Valencia, accompanied by his girlfriend Shelly Meighan, appeared unrepresented before Chief Magistrate Anne Marie Smith where a total of nine charges were read to him.  Included in the slew is attempted murder, use of deadly means of harm and dangerous harm upon Triston Gordon, as well as one count each of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon upon Corporal Harold Grinage and Police Constable Freeman Staine.  Valencia has been remanded to the Belize Central Prison until May sixth.