Belize City escape artist sentenced to 6 months

An escape artist who eluded police custody in May was this week sentenced for the offence. On Thursday, twenty-one year old Mark Medina was convicted of escape and sentenced to six months behind bars by Chief Magistrate Herbert Lord. On May twenty-eighth, Medina was shot in his right leg by police when authorities tried to detain him at the Belize City Centre. He was transported to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital under police guard, but around five-thirty the following morning, Medina convinced P.C. Sheddon Martinez to let him use the bathroom alone. The injured man hoisted himself through the window and walked away. When Martinez discovered that his charge had disappeared, a search was immediately launched and police caught up with him on Baymen Avenue…but the young man escaped again. Medina ended up turning himself in to police on May thirty-first and was charged with escape. At the time, Medina was wanted for questioning in connection with the May murder of Ordel Duncan in the Pickstock hutment area. According to court reports, Medina had planned on producing a witness in his defence, namely a taxi driver, to testify that officer Martinez had helped him get into a cab, but that person did not show up at court.