3 Men Arraigned for Murder of Ian Blair
It was not until after two p.m. today that eighteen-year-old Windell Thurton, twenty-one-year-old Max Orosco and nineteen-year-old Byron Flowers, all of Belize City, were arraigned before Magistrate Deborah Rogers for the murder of thirty-seven year old Ian Blair. The trio arrived handcuffed to each other along with two others detainees. Thurton, Orosco and Flowers were charged for Murder, Aggravated Burglary, Attempt Murder, Dangerous Harm and Use of Deadly Means of Harm for the Wednesday morning homicide during a home invasion on Simon Lamb Street in Belize City. The incident occurred around one-thirty that morning, at the home of urologist Doctor Marcos Rugama, with whom Blair was visiting. Doctor Rugama was stabbed once to the chest, but Blair was pursued into a room and killed. Shortly after, the three accused were detained by police and today they were arraigned for the crime. They were remanded to prison until March fourth. Following their appearance in court this afternoon, News Five spoke with the Blair’s brother, Amir Heredia, who was present for the arraignment of his brother’s alleged killers.
Amir Heredia
Amir Heredia, Brother of Deceased
“I’m here in front of the court because I want the justice system to do justice against these people that murdered my brother because I think that we as a family should unite and take this all the way until they make justice against them because we cannot bring back his life. Right now the whole family is still grieving. I don’t know any one of them but after investigations that our family had done, we got to find out where they live and a little background of them; that they are people that are in and out of the courts. If they have been in and out of the court, the justice system should be a little stricter with them and try to make justice because it is hard when someone lose their life innocently.”
Duane Moody
“Now we understand some of the items that were stolen have been recovered including your brother’s bicycle. Could you talk to us about that?”
Ian Blair
Amir Heredia
“Well my brother’s bicycle was at the station. Apparently they had his cell phone, a bunch of keys and a couple dollars that he had in his pocket. So actually we recovered those items last night when they called me to pick it up. We have that in our possession. Our family just wants justice to be done and we are going to try to follow this as far as it takes to see if we will get justice out of this because we cannot bring our loved one back. And like I said the last time, he is a calm, cool person that doesn’t interfere with anyone. Anyone can meet him on the streets and say Ian how are you…and he is always smiling with them. And I tell you….that’s what actually hurts us because he doesn’t mess with anyone at all. And these guys that took his life, I feel they deserve a really hard penalty against them.”
Duane Moody
“Amir, do you feel Ian was cheated out of his life?”
Amir Heredia
“Yes, I believe so.”
Blair will be to laid to rest at Homeland Memorial on Saturday.
