Domestic Dispute Ends in Arson; Lindon Requeña is Remanded

Two arsons were reported over the weekend – one in Belize City, which involved a vehicle being set ablaze and the other, a structural fire in Biscayne Village. The latter was a domestic dispute that ended with the home of Dione Requeña being set on fire.  On Saturday morning, Dione was at her home, off mile twenty-seven and a half on the Philip Goldson, when her ex-husband Lindon Requeña arrived and physically assaulted her. The details behind the assault are not known at this time, but Lindon was then seen leaving and immediately thereafter, the house was engulfed in flames. Fire personnel arrived later to extinguished the blaze and Lindon was taken into custody.

Fitzroy Yearwood

ASP Fitzroy Yearwood, Communications Director, Belize Police Department

“She was at home when her ex-husband entered that home and was actually harming her physically. The neighbours came to her rescue; she managed to get out of her own house and a few minutes later, neighbours report that they saw him leaving the house and that the house was engulfed in flames. So we know that he is being looked at as a suspect for the arson on that home.”

Duane Moody

“Sir we understand that he has already been charged. He was charged this morning.”

ASP Fitzroy Yearwood

“He was charged recently because in this report it said that he was detained pending.”

Today, forty-year-old Lindon Requeña was arraigned in the Belize City Magistrate’s Court for a single charge of arson for which he pleaded not guilty. And while the charge of arson is a bailable offence, the prosecutor made strong objections on the grounds that Requeña is expected to be charged for injures his ex-wife sustained during a domestic dispute minutes before the house was set on fire. The prosecutor also made note that the accused had also breached the conditions of a protection order placed against him. As such, the magistrate remanded Requeña to the Belize Central Prison until November first.