Trial for Accused Arsonist of Patrick Faber’s Government Vehicle

Allen Martinez

Chief Magistrate Ann-Marie Smith today committed thirty-year-old Allen Martinez to be tried in the Supreme Court on an arson charge. He is accused of setting afire a silver Mazda car belonging to the Government of Belize and assigned temporarily to Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education Patrick Faber. The incident happened at Faber’s residence in Lords’ Bank, Belize District on October twelfth, 2016. After a preliminary inquiry where the prosecution turned over various statements and documentary exhibits, including video surveillance of the incident, the Chief Magistrate found that there was a case against Martinez. Martinez was freed on bail of two thousand dollars after being on remand since he was charged. According to Faber, his driver had parked the vehicle inside his fenced yard and secured it earlier in the evening; however, just after midnight he was awakened and saw the vehicle, valued at fifty-five thousand dollars, on fire from inside his house. It was destroyed despite the efforts of fire personnel to save it. Surveillance video from Faber’s house purports to show the alleged arsonist entering the property just before midnight, carrying a container. The suspect was seen throwing something around the vehicle, jumping over the fence and then lobbing a substance suspected to be gasoline at the vehicle and lighting it afire. This was the second vehicle assigned to Faber to meet foul play; the first, earlier in the year, wound up in the Caribbean Sea on Newtown Barracks after an apparent joyride.