Michelle Brown’s Murder Trial Resumes

The case of Police Constable Michelle Brown, accused of the shooting death of Belize City barber Fareed Ahmad, resumed on Monday before Supreme Court Judge Colin Williams with sworn testimony given by Forensics Expert Shirley Lino. She spent much of the day detailing the court on the way in which she received sealed parcels of evidence to process through ballistics testing at the National Forensics Laboratory in Ladyville on January fourteenth, 2018.  Lino said that the parcel included sealed envelopes that contained a Bersa brand nine millimeter pistol, six live rounds of Aguila brand ammunition, and two shell casings. She also said that at the end of the tests she conducted, she found that the bullet that killed Ahmad was fired from the same weapon.  That weapon, which was previously presented in court, was the firearm assigned to Brown, and which she had not handed in when she signed off duty on the night preceding Ahmad’s killing.

In her testimony; Lino also said that she got not only a second, but a third examination by other forensics experts – all of whom arrived at the same conclusion. The Prosecution has three more witnesses to call, two of whom are currently on sick leave and the third who is expected to take the stand on Tuesday afternoon. The trial without a jury started last week with testimonies given by Ahmad’s wife, Irma Dyer, who arrived at the shooting scene near Hattieville soon after the incident, as well as by Abner Itsa, the Officer who assigned the firearm to Brown. Jason Betson, a resident of Mile 16 on the George Price Highway also testified last week and said that when he heard a loud bang, he made checks outside and discovered that a B.M.W. S.U.V. had crashed into a parked vehicle that belonged to his brother.  He and others at the scene took the badly wounded Ahmad out of the vehicle and rendered assistance to Brown, who was seated in the passenger seat and who had an injured leg.