Iran “Basco” Jones to be Laid to Rest; Baby Due October
Iran “Basco” Jones
The family of Iran “Basco” Jones is preparing for his funeral after they positively identified him as the murder victim who was found in Biscayne Village on Saturday afternoon. The corpse was callously dumped in a shallow grave off a feeder road and was detected by someone who was going hunting in the area. On Monday, we took you to the location where the body was discovered. Jones disappeared after he gave testimony in a murder trial and was reportedly threatened twice. He relocated to Hattieville to escape his pursuers but disappeared one night when he went out to look for food. Now his mother, disheartened that her son was likely killed for doing a good deed, looks to the positives that he has left behind. News Five’s Marion Ali reports.
Marion Ali, Reporting
It’s been five days since the body of Iran “Basco” Jones was discovered in Biscayne Village. The thirty-year-old went missing after he had given testimony in a murder trial. Today, his mother, Sherlene Gonzalez, saddened that she lost her son in this way, expressed frustration with the system that was supposed to protect him.
Sherlene Gonzalez
Sherlene Gonzalez, Mother of Iran “Basco” Jones
“They don’t have no witness protection, Marion. That’s just a joke. That’s the joke of the day. No witness protection dehn nuh have. I thought so until… With the case, that’s the one that he mentioned that he was fearing for his life. After the case was over, he said, Mommy, I won’t live to see my child. He said, please make sure that you help my girlfriend in any way possible, because he know it.”
Sean Menzies
The case that Jones had testified in was that of Eric Miranda and Jeffrey Contreras, for the fatal shooting of fifty-seven-year-old Sean Menzies. Menzies was shot and killed outside of his house on Lancaster Street in November 2020, as he smoked a cigarette. The prosecution believed that Jones witnessed the homicide and called him to testify earlier this month. Unlike so many who have opted to remain silent, Jones tried to help the Crown in a case and he too became a victim. It’s an unfortunate situation that places the state in a catch twenty-two. Shelmadine Sanchez, a single mother, also became a murder victim in the Lake I community in August 2010, after she witnessed a murder a week earlier. Now having lost her son in a similar fashion, Sherlene Gonzalez discourages her remaining children from trying to assist.
Sherlene Gonzalez
“Now I have to take a different approach when I am dealing with my kids – to tell them: they say, when you see something, you say something. Well, I want to tell them as a mother, when you see something, you do just like yoh nuh see, and run like hell, because, honestly, this nothing make no sense. Because they don’t end up di kill Shawn Menzies, soh now my son life gone just like that behind Mr. Menzies. The two accused weh dehn di accuse about this murder, dehn deh back a prison, dehn wah have fi dehn life out ya, and I lose my child.”
With the loss of her son, Gonzalez says his dreams went with him. She will be left with Jones’ first and only child whose birth is expected in October.
Sherlene Gonzalez
“He wanted to become a crane operator because he said he was going to work himself towards that. When the baby born and everything, he said ih wa get ihself together, become a crane operator, and he may have big dreams for his child.”
Marion Ali
“Heavy duty machinery.”
Sherlene Gonzalez
“Heavy duty machinery because that’s the way family members, they grow up seeing. The family member is heavy duty machine operator. He wanted to go to Cayo to be the exact place where he wanted to go and try start over from there. He said after when he know that the child is okay then he may go and go look after fi he dreams weh he mi have.”
Gonzalez says Jones was hoping for a son. But they’ve decided not to take the ultrasound and to let the new arrival be a surprise. Whatever the gender, she says she will do her best for her grandchild.
Sherlene Gonzalez
“I would like to see through my grandchild that he or she become productive; honesty, respect – that’s what I want them to have, honesty and respect for one another, and teach them. I want dehn get the best education possible, and as long as I live, I wah mek sure that happen so that they could be something a citizen of Belize and walk the right path and just shut out the corruption that is going on in this country. So as long as I’m as alive, Marion, that’s what I want for – and not only that grandchild, all my grandchildren.”
Marion Ali for News Five.
