Video Evidence Unveiled in Court During Mason Murder Trial

Accused murderer William “Danny” Mason and his alleged accomplices were back in court today where they are being tried for the decapitation of Pastor Llewellyn Lucas in July 2016.  As the trial progresses in the Belmopan Supreme Court, additional witnesses are being called to the stand to provide testimony in the high-profile case.  This morning, a tech expert working as a consultant for the Belize Police Department, testified to handling surveillance footage taken from Mason’s Intelco Hill residence on the day of Lucas’ beheading.  From the dock, Harry Noble, who has been working with the department for the past fifteen years, told the court that on July nineteenth, 2016, he received a pair of digital video recorders from Inspector Osman Mortis to review and extract footage that had been captured on the devices. One D.V.R. contained no data, while the other contained a significant amount of recorded information. Noble accomplished the task and subsequently provided Corporal Holly Vasquez with the content which was then burnt onto five D.V.D.s on August twenty-fourth.  A sixth copy was sealed inside a manila envelope and formally handed over to Vasquez. In court today, the envelope was presented to Noble who was able to positively identify it. The Crown then applied for the D.V.D. to be taken into evidence. The defense objected on several grounds, questioning Noble’s qualification and competence, as well as casting doubt that the equipment used could have been tampered with while Noble, who was on vacation at the time, was out of the country.  Mason’s attorney, Herbert Panton, also objected on the ground that the time given during Vasquez’s testimony did not corroborate the time given by Noble. The tech consultant also assured the court that there was no way that copies of the surveillance footage could have been tampered with because the D.V.R.s were stored in the department’s server room in Belmopan. Likewise, he is the only one with access to the room using a single set of keys and the laptop he uses is one of the most secure operating systems available. Several clips from the video were then shown to the court which purported to show the arrival of Llewellyn Lucas, David Dodd and Aldis Wright at Mason’s hill top residence. The footage also shows Lucas being escorted by two persons, one of whom produces what appears to be a large knife as he walked behind the unsuspecting pastor.   The surveillance footage also purports to show Mason’s accomplices placing what appear to be the bound and blindfolded Dodd and Wright in the pan of Mason’s Ford F150 pickup, before he, Mason, enters the driver’s side of the vehicle.