Tracey Betancourt Acquitted For San Pedro Murder

Tracey Betancourt

Today, twenty-six-year old Tracey Betancourt was found not guilty and will serve no time for the murder of American businessman Lamont Edward Lipka. The forty-nine-year-old was found lying face down in a pool of his own blood after being shot seven times at his business Tropicana Restaurant and Bar in San Pedro in 2018 . Video evidence placed Betancourt, a former San Pedro resident, on the scene of the crime. However, she denied that it was herself who was depicted in the video. Betancourt then proceeded to abscond on July twenty-eighth, 2022, the very day her verdict in the murder was to be delivered. Being that Betancourt willingly evaded the police for multiple years, she will be charged for absconding. However, in the case of the murder, Justice Ricardo O’Neil Sandcroft found Betancourt not guilty, stating, “the mere presence at a scene does not point to the guilt of a person”. Betancourt was represented by attorney Anthony Sylvester. While Betancourt was free to walk, the same could not be said for thirty-eight-year-old Leon Walford, who was found guilty in twenty-twenty-two and sentenced to forty-seven years in prison. Video evidence also placed Walford at the scene of the crime and was shown firing up to seven shots at Lipka. Walford, like Betancourt, denied his involvement and procured an alibi via his mother, who said he was at home in Belize City at the time of the murder. However, Walford was identified as the man in the video by a police officer who testified that Walford walked with a limp much like that of the man in the video. Betancourt was found to have no substantial ties with Walford and the witness statements beyond being seen on surveillance footage.