Teenager Arraigned for Belmopan Murder
Josue Israel Ortiz
A teenager of Salvadoran nationality was this morning arraigned in the Belmopan Magistrate’s court for Monday’s murder of Bella Regina Williams. The mother of three was found dead by her eldest daughter at the doorsteps of their Las Flores house. Police confirm Williams was partying with the murder suspect just prior to her death. Her head had been smashed with a blunt object and police say there is enough evidence against Josue Israel Ortiz. News Five’s Duane Moody reports.
Duane Moody, Reporting
Belmopan police believe that they have cracked the case of the murder of Las Flores resident, thirty-four-year-old Bella Regina Williams, whose body was discovered in front of her house just before eight o’clock on Monday morning by her eldest daughter. Today, two days after the gruesome discovery of the partially nude body of the mother of three, nineteen year old Josue Israel Ortiz, a Salvadoran national, was arraigned for the homicide in the Belmopan Magistrate’s Court.
Howell Gillett
Sr. Supt. Howell Gillett, O.C., Belmopan Police
“Based on the investigation, we believe that we have the weapon used as well as other items that could link the accused, but I would not want to go into much details as you may well appreciate that this case has to go to the supreme court sometime in the near future and I wouldn’t want to say anything that could be used to hinder the court case itself.”
Williams had left her house on Sunday night and went socializing at a nearby nightclub with her friends. Surveillance footage shows her partying with the accused before leaving the establishment sometimes around one-thirty a.m. on Monday.
Melissa Burrow
Melissa Burrow, Cousin on Deceased [File: July 25th, 2016]
“What happened, well I don’t really know all the details. I know that they heard some screaming but it’s always usual to us because we always hear screaming because she lives in front of a club so we would always hear shouting and we didn’t know it was her. That’s when they told us the details that it was her screaming and that’s all we know right now. She went out nine o’clock [last night] to La Cabana. She never made it home. And her daughter found her on the middle of the house naked and she said that her head was busted open and from there they told me that somebody raped her and killed her in front of the house.”
Sr. Supt. Howell Gillett
“Our investigation is showing that sometime between one-thirty and the time of the discovery that was when we believe the injuries were caused to the deceased. We also know that the deceased and the accused were socializing at a popular nightclub here in Belmopan and it is following their departure from the nightclub that they might have gone to the deceased home and some form of altercation arose and we believe that it was then the injuries were inflicted against the deceased.”
Bella Regina Williams
Williams was killed as a result of blunt force trauma to the back of the head. But was she raped before she was killed?
Duane Moody
“You said her body was found partially nude. Is it suspected that she may have been sexually assaulted?”
Sr. Supt. Howell Gillett
“Well we are investigating also from that angle, but we will need further forensic testing to be done before we could conclusively say that yes, she was raped.”
Ortiz has been remanded to Central Prison until October 25th, 2016 when he is to return to the courts. Duane Moody for News Five.
