Belize City Man Pleads Guilty to Manslaughter…

Jamie Dawson was twenty-three years when he was first accused of a murder but was instead convicted of manslaughter. Now at the age of thirty five, and after waiting eight years for a retrial, Dawson chose to plead guilty to manslaughter; a plea which the office of the D.P.P. had no objections to.  Also known as J.J., Dawson took the manslaughter plea in respect of the December, 2002 shooting death of Maurice Neal, which occurred inside Bismarck Club. Neal was murdered when a group of men opened fire at a crowd inside the club. The group had been gambling and Nicholee Lewis was the first person to be caught in the crossfire when the area was sprayed by bullets. Lewis was shot in the hand and back, and when he ran, a third shot caught him in the buttocks. The second person to be shot was Neal, who died on the spot. Dawson’s guilty plea was accepted since the records show that he had been remanded to prison since 2002 and no jury had returned a guilty verdict for murder against him. A second trial which occurred in 2006, ended in a hang jury. Today, he pleaded guilty to manslaughter and is to be sentenced next week on August fourth, 2014.