Wife calls husband’s arrest a case of mistaken identity
An arrest has been made in the jacking of a businessman from Dangriga. While that appears to be good news, the family of the man who was arrested for the crime is crying foul. His wife and mother believe that the cops have confused him with someone else. Twenty-seven year old Wilbert Lopez, who works in Punta Gorda, was taking a connecting bus in Dangriga on Monday when he was detained by the cops. Hours later he was charged with the robbery of fifty-eight year old businessman, Xineng Chen. Chen, who is known to carry large sums of cash, was waiting for his flight at Maya Island Air when three men, one brandishing a firearm, entered the building and robbed him of twenty thousand dollars. Lopez is currently on remand at the Hattieville Prison for the crime. But according to his wife, Marilyn Lopez, and his mother, Lucia Perez, not only was Wilbert at home when the robbery occurred, he was in Belize City.
Voice of Marilyn Williams, Wife of Accused
“Very, very upset. What happened, my husband, every eleven days, he go work down south and come back in. Ih come in from Thursday. Ih deh yah Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday ih left to go back down dah ih job. Sunday ih deh yah all day wid ih friends deh and then some of the neighbors do some drinking. Ih get high and he had to gone eena ih bed dat dah Sunday. Monday ih left and gone—fi gone back pan ih job. We left from here ten-thirty Monday morning. As we get dah Dangriga, two police come walk behind ah and come and tell ah I want you. So he say fi what because me dah noh no person weh you know. So di police say when you reach you will know for what. So when he get deh now, dehn tell ah some robbery weh gone on and twenty thousand dollars Sunday morning dah Stann Creek dehn want he fah and he deh dah Belize from Thursday. Dehn have he as mistaken identity and di wrong person and plus dehn have dah jail. Fi what? Fi remand this man dah jail, no I.D. parade, no statement, no nothing, dehn just ker ah dah court and then ker ah dah jail.”
Lucia Perez, Mother of Accused
“No reason at all fi mek dehn lock up my son cause my son noh got no conflict wid di law, he noh violent or nothing. Dehn noh even give him a call nor nothing. Den dehn noh even give he wah call nor nothing. Dat noh fair, dat noh right. Dehn noh even tek wah statement from di bwai nor nothing. Dah noh right. Noh wah ID parade nor nothing. Dehn violate my son rights and that no fear. I need justice and if dehn noh give me satisfaction—di got my son di punish, can’t eat, deh wid ih children they. Everything dehn tek weh from my son and my son mi gwein dah work.”
According to the women, Wilbert worked as a driver at an excavating company in Placencia. And on Monday, they will go to the Internal Affairs Department of the Police to report the matter.
