Ernie Miranda is Stabbed and Killed Behind Sadie Vernon
Ernie Miranda
There have been two more murder victims this week, which brings the murder count so far in 2018 to one hundred and forty-two. That is dead even with the total number for the entire 2017 and there is still ten more days to go. This morning, sanitation workers made a gruesome discovery. In a drain behind a high school, they found the body of Ernie Miranda. He was stabbed to death and laid in a pool of blood not far from his house on Zacaranda Street. Now, Miranda has a rap sheet a mile long and had been released from prison about two months ago. His checkered past included a failed robbery at Chon Saan Palace in Belize City. By this morning, he was a dead man and police are investigating whether his past had come back to haunt him. News Five’s Isani Cayetano reports.
Voice of: Friend of Deceased
“My dawg come outta jail, change ih life. My dawg dah mi wahn peacemaker. My dawg gaan da jail [and] from he come out my dawg gaan wid me and apologize to everybody weh he eva do wrong to. My dawg mi di change ih life.”
Isani Cayetano, Reporting
Did Ernie Miranda’s troubled past finally catch up with him or was he simply marked for death in an encounter with someone else on Thursday night? That question remains unanswered, as investigators try to piece together what led to the fatal stabbing. Miranda’s lifeless body was reportedly discovered by sanitation workers this morning in a pool of blood inside this drain on Morning Glory Street. Family members theorize that he may have been attacked not far from his home on Zacaranda Street and fell dead behind Sadie Vernon High School while attempting to seek help at the nearby police precinct.
Voice of: Relative of Deceased
“Whateva happen last night, we noh really know da weh happen, but all I could tell yoh ih mi get stab and ih try run through di yard and gaan through soh and jump di fence and ih mi di try reach di police station fi mek ih get help and thing.”
Miranda wouldn’t get far. He apparently collapsed while attempting to scale the back fence of the schoolyard. It wasn’t until this morning that neighbors were alerted of a body in the muddy water.
Voice of: Friend of Deceased
“I sorry [bout] weh dehn do. Weh dehn do, God forgive dehn and God wahn always forgive dehn but I tell yo my lee bwai Ernie. Ernie noh mean, and he neva mean. Yoh know weh he always tell me? Better must come. He always tell me better must come. Ah noh wahn lie to yoh, ah wahn neva lie to yoh but Ernie, mek ah tell yoh bout di man, right. I hope my dawg rest in peace and everybody just rejoice weh dehn do, right. Just because weh dehn do, dehn wahn rejoice, but dehn noh wahn rejoice because God noh like ugly.”
Ernie Miranda
But Ernie, himself, is not without sin. In fact, he has a lengthy rap sheet which dates back to April 2001. Since then he has been in and out of prison for a number of crimes he has been accused of committing. The most notorious of his exploits was the attempted robbery of Chon Saan Palace in 2010. That plot which reportedly included a police officer was foiled and the men were charged accordingly, only for those charges to be dismissed in the lower court. Still, Miranda kept finding himself behind bars.
Isani Cayetano
“Ernie is someone who has been in and out of prison. Can you tell me more or less when he was released and how long he has been out?”
Voice of: Relative of Deceased
“Well ih deh out bout two months and change now and ih mi di try change ih life and ih past just ketch up to ahn.”
Isani Cayetano
“Now his body was discovered in the drain on Morning Glory Street early this morning. Do you guys know what the police were doing in terms of their investigation of what happened, perhaps who they spoke with and that kind of thing?”
Voice of: Relative of Deceased
“Well di police cohn ya this morning and thing. Dehn gone check ova deh soh weh paat ih jump the fence and then dehn ker di bloodstain weh mi di deh and dehn ker di whole piece ah di fence and dehn ker it as evidence.”
Police are yet to issue an official report on Miranda’s murder. Reporting for News Five, I am Isani Cayetano.
