San Pedro man beats the murder rap

San Pedro resident Miguel Angel Orrego celebrated his birthday day the best way any man on remand can as he walked away free of murder and manslaughter charges today. After three and a half hours, a jury of six men and six women found him innocent in the fatal stabbing of Yubert Flashy which occurred on December twenty-fifth, 2005 in San Pedro, Ambergris Caye. The incident occurred around four-thirty-two a.m. in front of a food stand by Big Daddy’s on the island. Flashy was involved in a fist fight with a group of men when he was stabbed twice in his chest with a knife. He ran in the direction of a nearby park, but collapsed and died. The prosecution, represented by senior crown counsel Cecil Ramirez, relied on a caution statement given by Orrego in which he allegedly confessed to stabbing Flashy, but a Voire Dire was held to determine whether the statement should be admitted in court and Justice Lucas ruled it inadmissible because the judge’s rules were violated. The prosecution called three witnesses; Flashy’s common law wife Cristina Coc, a security guard at Big Daddy’s, Jonas Saintyl, and a friend of Orrego, Eladio Terry. Coc testified that she saw the fight but did not see when Flashy was stabbed. Saintyl also testified that he saw Flashy fighting with a group of men including Orrego, but he said he did not see who stabbed Flashy. Terry, however, testified that Orrego told him he had just stabbed a man twice. But this was not convincing and Orrego was found not guilty. When he was freed, News Five found Orrego in good spirit, as he left the courtroom.

Miguel Angel Orrego, Acquitted of Murder/Manslaughter Charges
“I feel good that I have been cleared of the charges because the accusations against me have been false. When you believe in God nothing can come between that.”