Hung jury in Fabian Bain’s murder trial

A jury of seven women and five men deliberated for almost six hours and it was unable to reach a verdict in the case of Fabian Bain A.K.A. Carlos Escalante. Bain was charged with the murder of security guard Fortunato Chun who was shot and killed on November twenty-third, 2006. Chun was shot in the left side of his neck while he was in the security booth at Belize Water Services on Central American Boulevard. There was no eyewitness to the shooting and the case for the prosecution, represented by Crown Counsel Cecil Ramirez, hinged solely on circumstantial evidence. The chief witness for the prosecution was Mario Pech, a security guard who was on his way home from work at Stella Maris School. Pech testified that while he was coming over Belcan Bridge, he heard a gunshot and he saw the security guard clutching his stomach as he emerged from the security booth. Pech also testified that the other person who came out of the booth was Bain, whom he pointed out in an identification parade. But in her summing up of the case, the trial judge, Justice Michelle Arana said that there was no evidence of what took place. Bain gave an unsworn statement from the dock in which he denied having any knowledge of the incident. The accused was represented by attorney Linsbert Willis. Bain is no stranger to the courtroom as on June fourteenth, 2003, he was charged with the murder of Dean Belisle and on February eighteenth, 2005, he was acquitted of that charge.