Escapee found in Honduras

Escaped convict Marcel Gabourel wanted by police for the murder of taxi driver Peter Novelo and other offenses he reportedly committed while on a crime spree with fellow escapees is back in custody. Gabourel was brought back to Belize from Honduras on Wednesday. It is believed Gabourel jumped the border early last year after he accidentally shot his accomplice Frank Castro during a robbery in Punta Gorda. According to the police both Gabourel and Castro, who had escaped from Hattieville Prison on December sixth, 1997 along with the now infamous Julian Bush are also suspected of involvement in the armed robbery of Tang Supermarket in Belize City on December sixteenth. Bush was fatally wounded after the shopkeeper unexpectedly opened fire on his attackers. It is alleged that after the fiasco at Tang’s Gabourel and Castro kidnapped taxi driver Peter Novelo from the Belcan Taxi Stand. Three days later Novelo’s body was found in the trunk of his car on Chan Pine Ridge Road in Orange Walk. The vehicle had been set on fire. The Punta Gorda Magistrate’s Court has charged Gabourel with attempted murder, aggravated assault, aggravated burglary, conspiracy to commit murder and use of deadly means of harm. It is not clear at this time how Honduran authorities managed to get their hands on Gabourel but tonight the fugitive is back behind bars at the Hattieville Prison, presumably under heavier guard than when he and his cohorts escaped in 1997.