Acquittal, hung jury in O.W. murder trial

Late last night the murder cases brought against twenty-nine year old Mark Vega and twenty-four year old Luis Urbina ended in the Belize City Supreme Court… but the conclusion has brought no solace to the victim’s family. A jury of their peers returned a not guilty verdict for Urbina and was deadlocked in its deliberations on Vega. This afternoon Prosecutor Majorie Moyston told News Five that the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions intends to re-file charges against Vega. The Orange Walk residents were jointly charged for the murder of Susana Petkau and the attempted murder of her husband, Enrique Petkau. The case against the young men stems from a violent spree of murder, rape, and robbery in June 2002 in which police allege that Vega, Urbina, and Omar Vellos held up the Petkaus near Shipyard, stole their car, shot the couple and left them for dead. The gang then kidnapped Jacob Rancharan and a female friend as they sat in a parked car along Corozal Bay. The men switched vehicles, getting into Rancharan’s Chevy Blazer and then robbed the Jasmine Restaurant in Orange Walk Town. With proceeds including cash and a cell phone, the trio later took Rancharan and his friend to the People’s Stadium where they gang-raped the young woman. In April 2004, Justice Adolph Lucas found Vega guilty of two counts of kidnapping, rape, and an unnatural crime and sentenced him to ten years in jail for each kidnapping conviction and thirteen years each for the sex crimes. Luis Urbina was also convicted of those same charges, but in addition to his thirteen years behind bars for those convictions, he was also sentenced to seven years for escaping police custody in April 2004. Urbina’s attorney, Lionel Welch, told the media on Tuesday that the case against his client was weak, especially regarding the police identification parade. During the three-week court case, Urbina took the stand in his own defence, maintaining that he was not present when the Petkaus were shot. Leo Bradley Jr. was the attorney for Mark Vega.