Dean Galvez to Court for Murder of Roni Casasola
A Saint Matthew’s villager was escorted by police to a courtroom in Belmopan this morning and arraigned for murder. Twenty-one-year-old Dean Galvez was well-known to murder victim, Roni Casasola who is also from Saint Matthew’s Village. Casasola met his untimely death on Sunday morning following an altercation at a local bar. He had been picked up by his mother and was heading home when he came under attack. News Five’s Duane Moody reports from the Magistrate’s Court in Belmopan.
Dean Galvez
Duane Moody, Reporting
As early as eight-thirty this morning, a twenty-one-year-old Saint Matthews villager was escorted in handcuffs to the Magistrate’s Court in Belmopan. By the start of the session at nine a.m., Dean Glenford Galvez, who is originally from Roaring Creek, was arraigned before Magistrate Merlene Moody for the murder of nineteen-year-old Roni Casasola which occurred in the wee hours of Sunday in Saint Matthews Village. By all accounts, the accused murderer and his victim knew each other.
Elvira Casasola, Mother of Deceased
“Two of them are them lee bwais how I see the way they grow up in the village. The other one I no got so long fi know him because he dah from Roaring Creek.”
Elvira Casasola
Duane Moody
“So you would say your son was killed by a person he knew?”
Elvira Casasola
“Yes. The person weh kill my son is not from the village; he is from Roaring Creek. Justice; that’s all weh I want justice because my pikney dah no wah dog or animal fu make ih just stay like that. So that’s the only thing I beg for—fi justice.”
According to police, there was an altercation between Roni and another person as he left Prodigal Bar in the village after which the shooting murder occurred.
Alejandro Cowo
ASP Alejandro Cowo, O.C., C.I.B., Eastern Division
“That male person, we understand that he was at a bar in the village when he had an argument with a male person. And as a result, the person who he had the argument with, followed him whilst he came out of the bar and thereafter fired several shots at his direction.”
Elvira Casasola
“He was out a lee bit around by the Prodigal Bar and I gone look for him and the same time I di bring he home, them guys come through this lane here. And the boys were drunk and under drugs, I guess, and it is really bad because they neva shoulda kill my baby like that. Dehn neva shoulda take my pikney away from me, not that way.”
Roni Casasola
Around twelve-thirty a.m. on Sunday, shots rang out and Roni was hit to the chest. Elvira Casasola says that she was walking with her son when he was targeted. But could his murder have been prevented?
Elvira Casasola
“Around nine-thirty so, and he was supposed to go to work next day morning and so I gone and talk to him and tell ahn make ih please try go home cause he need fi work dah morning. And then he tell me yes mommy I gwen home right now. So I tell ahn well then I gwen home but I no want come back and see you here again. And he say, “No mommy, I gwen home directly.” After that I gone back and he still deh right there, so I bring him with me, make he come home with me.”
On Monday, Galvez handed over himself to the Belmopan police. After arraignment today, he was remanded to central prison until July tenth. Duane Moody for News Five.
