Two charged in San Pedro murder
Almost one month after the murder of fifty year old Antonio Almendarez, a watchman at Fido’s restaurant and bar, seventeen year old Elvis Williams and twenty-three year old Luis Lalin were today formally arraigned in Magistrate’s Court. According to officer in charge of the Criminal Investigation Branch, Assistant Superintendent Chester Williams, he credits the arrest to a good working relationship between the police and the community of San Pedro, Ambergris Caye. Williams was arrested late Saturday evening on the island, while Lalin… Well, police did not have to go too far to find him. As it turned out he was already behind bars after being picked up recently and remanded to Hattieville prison on drug trafficking charges.
Jacqueline Woods
?What do you believed happened on that night, was it a random act of robbery, or was this place specifically targeted??
A.S.P. Chester Williams, Officer Commanding, C.I.B.
?From what the investigation reveal, was that the place was indeed specifically targeted and that the motive was robbery, which later on led to the murder.?
?Well it is very terrifying to see that most of the murders being committed to today?s date is being committed by persons either under the age of twenty or just above twenty and it is something that the community on a whole needs to look at, parenting as the case may be. It will take more than just the police in order to contain the situation. It needs the effort of everybody, including the parents of these individuals to speak to them, see if they could create some kind of programmes to put the youths in to keep them off the streets and not having them involved in criminal activities.?
I must give credit to the staff at the C.I.B. office in Belize City, the San Pedro police department, and the San Pedro community and likewise to the Director of Public Prosecutions office; we all worked cohesively together on this case in order to put the best possibly case forward to the court.?
Williams says the police strongly believe the evidence they have against both Lalin and Williams is good enough to bring about a conviction. Williams and Lalin, who live in San Pedro, are originally from Belize City. Also in court today was twenty year old Shandoy Jeffords, who was charged separately with the robbery of eighteen thousand, seven hundred dollars in connection with the same crime. Jeffords was granted and met bail of five thousand dollars.
