Accused murderer escapes in Orange Walk

Police are looking for a prisoner who escaped on Tuesday morning while being transported to Hattieville from Corozal. Nineteen year old Marcos Popper is reported to have jumped out of a police pickup truck as it slowed to go over a speed bump just outside Orange Walk. Police say he had been wearing handcuffs but somehow managed to slip it off his wrist. Nine other prisoners were in the back of the truck and they were accompanied by three police officers. Popper had testified earlier that day in the Supreme Court in Corozal. Popper and four friends are accused of murdering Robert Mosa in the Orange Walk District in June of 1998. The group, which included two underage youths, reportedly kidnapped Mosa and his girlfriend Shermain Novelo. Novelo told police the group took them to an area along the Chan Pine Ridge Road where they raped her and locked her in the trunk of a car, beat Mosa and then repeatedly ran him over with the car. They then set fire to the car. Novelo escaped and went for help, but Mosa was badly burned and died of his injuries several days later in Chetumal. Marcos Popper is still on the run. Police do not have a photograph available.