Fuentes’ victim finally speaks out
After being left for dead near Belizean Beach with a gunshot wound to the head administered by a man he thought was one of his best friends, it’s amazing that Joel Waight is alive today. What is equally amazing, in this age where everyone seems to be too afraid to share information they have about violent crime, is that Joel Waight would walk into our studios this morning and offer to give us his version of events involving himself and the man believed to be at the centre of several recent killings.
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
Police say they still have no leads on the whereabouts of Belize’s most wanted man, Jermaine Fuentes Depaz. Fuentes is wanted for the murders of Mark Ireland, Anthony ‘Trigga’ Adderley and the attempted murder of Joel Waight.
Waight, who was shot to the back of head discharged himself from the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital after it was reported that Fuentes tried to get inside the K.H.M.H. to finish the job. But why would Fuentes want one of his best friends dead? According to Waight, on January twentieth he was on Curasow Street when Fuentes drove up in Ireland’s white Cherokee, picked him up and took him in the vicinity of Belizean beach.
Joel Waight
“We never went to Belizean Beach, we turn back down to an off-road a bit more down. We had some other business that me, he Harris and Peters fi mi attend to.”
That business was to take drugs to Orange Walk and allegedly kill a number of individuals. Waight says he did not want to do the job, and that is why he says Jermaine Fuentes Depaz tried to kill him.
Joel Waight
“I am a computer technician for thirteen years, I have a family and I love my family a lot.”
One family member who also may hold the key to the murders is Waight’s teenaged daughter, whom he says had a relationship with Fuentes. That relationship appears to be the link to the stabbing death of Mark Ireland.
Jacqueline Woods
“Did you know Mark Ireland?”
Joel Waight
“Very well, a friend of the family. He come by, and I know that he was one that definitely had feelings for my little daughter.”
Jacqueline Woods
“Did Fuentes know Ireland?”
Joel Waight
“Of course, all three of us met at the house before. We talk.”
Jacqueline Woods
“Did Fuentes and Ireland get along?”
Joel Waight
“Definintely not. These guys have their small rival, concerning a young female.”
Waight says although Fuentes has tried to kill him twice, he does not want to see him dead. Rather, he would like to see Fuentes get to tell his side of the story.
Joel Waight
“Jermaine know for a fact that trials won’t be fair and the police are after him, they want to kill him; he know that. So, weh the hell, take out as much. Sad to say that I am the one get hurt and I dah the one weh have to do it and people maybe no see it in me. But I have so much love and I feel so godly a person, that I said, “Jermaine I could forgive you. And if you could, I could probably give you a number and you could call me, I could guarantee that nobody wah hurt, that nobody wah kill yuh, not even the queen. I promise you that, but we need to talk.”
Waight would not comment on what he knows about Adderley’s murder, saying that it would put a number of people’s lives at risk. Jacqueline Woods reporting for News 5.
If you have any information on the whereabouts of Jermaine Fuentes, you can call the twenty-four hour hotline at telephone number 08-20970. All information will be kept strictly confidential.
