Man Pleads Guilty to Killing His Sister

In the Belize City Supreme Court, the trial of twenty-eight-year-old Elijah Burke came to an end today.  Burke took a guilty plea to killing his own sister by hacking her to death more than two years ago.  Today, Justice Marilyn Williams sentenced Burke to twenty-five years imprisonment, less five years, which means that he will serve another twenty years behind bars.   On January thirty-first of this year, Burke pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter in the chopping death of twenty-nine-year-old Julianne Burke, the mother of a six-year-old.  She was attacked with a machete and chopped multiple times to the body on March twentieth, 2017 in front of her home located in the King’s Park area. The gruesome murder occurred in the presence of the young boy.  The incident left the boy and her common-law-husband traumatized.  Burke’s sentence is to take effect from the day he was arraigned and remanded for murder.  Julianne Burke was entering her home near the corners of First and Saint Peter Streets in when she was ambushed by her younger brother, who inflicted multiple chop wounds to her head, arms and other parts of her body.   It was not certain what triggered the deadly attack. Police say that Elijah gave a caution statement in which he said that he was looking for someone to rob and he didn’t realize he had targeted his own sister.  Julianne had gone to Petticoat Alley to a family function; it was on her return home with her son that she was attacked. A psychiatric evaluation was conducted which stated that Burke had mental and behavioural psychosis, but he was still committed to stand trial at the Supreme Court.