Marcos Garcia Gets 11 Months for Shooting Taxi Man

Marcos Garcia

A taxi man picked up a man and his girlfriend to take them to their destination, but instead of paying him, the man pulled out a gun, tried to rob the cabbie and ended up shooting him twice.   This morning, Marcos Garcia was sentenced to eighteen months imprisonment, but because he pleaded guilty early in his trial, he will serve only eleven months effective January thirty-first, 2019.  That is the day he pleaded guilty in court to use of deadly means of harm. The sentence was handed down by Justice Colin Williams in the Supreme Court.   The justice also considered other factors of retribution, deterrence, prevention and rehabilitation in determining the sentence.  Garcia was accused of shooting Emmeth Baptist twice on the night of October sixteenth 2016 on Aloe Vera Street, Belize City.  D.P.P. Crown Counsel Porsha Staine-Ferguson asked Justice Williams to impose a sentence to run consecutively with what Garcia is already serving for an ammunition offense, but that was not accepted.  Garcia also has a conviction for burglary for which he was fined one thousand dollars, but did not pay.  On the night of the incident, Baptist picked up Garcia and his girlfriend on Central American Boulevard and took them first to Vernon Street, then to Aloe Vera Street where his girlfriend exited the vehicle. That is when Baptist was shot twice.