Police Commissioner’s case evaporates

The disintegration of two of Belize’s highest profile murder cases in the same day has left the nation in shock and law enforcement authorities with their biggest headache since last year’s killing and mass jacking on the Hummingbird Highway. With Commissioner Ornel Brooks out of the country until Monday and National Security Minister Jorge Espat refusing all phone calls nobody in the police high command is ready to take public heat, but pressure is mounting on the government to take action… and soon… not just within the police department but on an entire legal system which has seemingly broken down. Thursday’s release of five suspects in the separate killings of Jackie Malic and Samantha Gordon for lack of evidence was made even more embarrassing by the high level of publicity the police sought when the arrests were first announced. In the case of Jackie Fern Malic whose body was found on March 24th, Police Commissioner Ornel Brooks summoned journalists to Racoon Street on April sixth to report that a suspect, Michael Williams, had been arrested, and the evidence was solid.

Ornel Brooks Commissioner of Police

(April 6th, 1999) “We have also established the presence of the deceased Jackie Malic in Williams’ car around 12 p.m. midday on the day of the 22nd – the same day of the disappearance.

We have also been able to establish a witness that on Tuesday the 23rd after Williams was released from his first pickup by the police, he was seen in the immediate vicinity in a dodging manner near to where the body of Jackie Malic was discovered. And this is a very important and critical point here because just prior to his release workmen who worked in the same location left the site and there were no sightings of the body of Jackie Malic until the following day.”