Bail offered to accused in plot to murder Shoman family

While Quilter was on the run for over two years, the six men accused of plotting to murder the Shoman family have been in and out of court for the past eight months trying to get bail. Today their attorneys, Dickie Bradley and Arthur Saldivar, were successful in convincing Magistrate Edd Usher to grant bail to two of the six men in the amount of five thousand plus two sureties of two thousand five hundred dollars each. The lucky two are twenty-two year old Cesar Jose Aldana Junior and thirty-three year old Aldo Miguel Urbina also known as Francisco “Pancho” Martinez, a Belizean of Orange Walk Town. The two and four others allegedly plotted to rob then murder businessman, Jose Shoman Junior, and his entire family of seven at their Northern Highway residence on the morning of Saturday December thirteenth, 2008. Bradley managed to get bail for the men on the basis that after the accused has spent the required ninety days or three month period behind bars and the prosecution is not prepared for trial, under the Crimes Control Act, bail should be allowed. But the two were unable up to this evening to meet bail and have since been remanded. Aldana Junior has permanent residency in Belize while Martinez, also known as “Pancho” or Urbina is a Belizean citizen and a resident of Corozal Town. The others who were not granted bail are forty seven year old Miguel Mayorga and three seventeen year old minors, all Guatemalans. All six are charged with Conspiracy to Commit Robbery, Conspiracy to Commit Murder and a series of gun and firearm charges. They are all due back in court on September seventh. The minors pleaded guilty to firearm and ammunition charges but Magistrate Usher rejected the plea and is now awaiting directives from the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions office. The men had also alleged, through a representative for the Guatemalan Consulate, that on a visit to prison, Jose Shoman had threatened them. The men are former employees of the Shoman family and were fired after the family alleged that their belongings were going missing.