Woman acquitted of abetment to murder

She was on trial for her involvement in the murder of her cousin, Rodwell “Burger” Neal, but tonight Cherry Mae Howard is a free woman. Chief Justice Abdulai Conteh today directed a twelve-member jury to find Howard not guilty on charges of abetment to commit murder and the alternative charge of abetment to commit manslaughter. This was after Howard’s attorney, Merlene Moody, entered a no-case submission. Moody argued that the prosecution, led by Counsel Sharon Frazer, had not tied Howard to the shooting death. The only evidence the prosecution did bring out in court was that the accused was holding the bicycle that the shooter was riding at the time of the incident. That shooter happened to be Howard’s boyfriend, Hillaire Sears, who in his murder trial late last year, told the court that he felt pressured into committing the murder after the deceased had beaten up Howard. The shooting that claimed the life of Neal occurred at his Kraal Road apartment on March nineteenth, 2001. The court found Sears guilty of murder and he was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Meanwhile, in Belize City Magistrate’s court, Chief Magistrate Herbert Lord today found a man not guilty of an armed robbery, which occurred last April. Defence attorney Adolph Lucas argued that the case presented by Prosecutor Luis Castellanos did not provide sufficient evidence against his client, Steve Card, also known as “Naz”. The two complainants, Kimberly Bowen and Marian Anderson, told the court that around 6:40 on April twenty-sixth of last year, they were at work at the Shell Gas Station at the junction of the Northern Highway and the Airport Road when suddenly a man approached them. Bowen and Anderson said the man, who wore a handkerchief under his eyes, demanded money. The women claimed they recognized the robber and one of them spoke to him, to which he responded that he was not playing. He then allegedly fired off a gun and the two women handed over seven hundred and forty dollars. Chief Magistrate Lord agreed that the prosecution had not sufficiently identified Card as the gunman with the evidence it provided, and acquitted Card of two counts of grievous harm and one count of robbery. Card, however, will not be a free man until 2006 when he completes a sentence for a burglary he committed while he was out on bail for the robbery.