New evidence may set death row inmate free
There are new developments in an old murder case. And, for the first time the Privy Council in London has referred a case back to the Belize Court of Appeal tasking them to consider new evidence, evidence Attorney Kirk Anderson believes will prove an innocent man is in prison.
Since July ninth, 1993 twenty-nine year old Wilfred Lauriano has been on death row for the murder of Corozal vendor, Diego Tzul which occurred on the night of July sixth, 1993 at the Queen’s Square Market. This week, six years later, the case has been referred back to the Belize Court of Appeals by the Privy Council to consider new evidence that may just declare Lauriano a free man.
In a story presented by Audrey Matura Tillett on News Five in June of 1996, Lauriano’s attorney Kirk Anderson said the reason why he decided to take the case is because he feels there is sufficient evidence to cast reasonable doubt in the minds of jurors as to whether his client did commit the murder. Anderson says the new evidence came to light after Jason Clark stated that it was Kenrick Hendy and not Lauriano who pulled the trigger. In a 1996 interview Clark, claimed to have been Hendy’s sideman when they both held up Tzul and his girlfriend Robergina Guilliano as they sat inside their vehicle at the market.
Jason Clark
(June, 1996) “So when Hendy came down, Hendy and I went through the back and come round on the man. So, Hendy and I walked side of the drain, then Hendy stuff the gun in the man face and tell him open the door. So the man didn’t want to open the door, so I gone round and I open the lady door and Hendy come round and point the sawed off from the man and put it on the lady and whop the lady in the head and ask her where the money is. The lady said she no have no money, see her purse there. I grab the purse, open it up and find check and thing. Then Hendy put back the gun on the man and tell the man, no move. The time he tell the man, no move, the man done haul the machete, so the man bust him in the stomach. The man let go of the machete and the guy he got shot and open up the door and drop down and gone back of the vehicle, then creep on his knees. So then Hendy grab the lady in her head and pulled her out of the vehicle and walk with her, check. So the little girl is bawling, let go my momma, let go my momma, so Hendy just let go her momma. Same way about three Spanish come round the lane there and Hendy spin round and bust some shots after them and then I run round the lane, check. Me and Hendy run round in the yard got our bike and me and the man roll on.”
Guilliano contends, however, that she had identified Lauriano as the right man and remembers how he looks because she did come face to face with him. She says she also remembers the way the man spoke and his distinctive walk. Attorney Kirk Anderson, however says, with the new evidence now at hand, it is probable that Guilliano pointed out the wrong man. He says Clark has no reason to protect Lauriano, but Clark and Hendy were close associates for at least ten years.
Kirk Anderson, Lauriano’s Attorney
(June, 1996) “Jason Clark did not have to come forward at all. By his coming forward, not only may he end up actually helping Wilfred Lauriano but certainly by his coming forward he is putting his own life and safety and freedom at risk. So to my mind when you look at it in that context, it seems rather unlikely that someone would come forward even for the best of friends, to put himself in a situation whereby he is most likely going to be facing a murder charge very soon thereafter. And nobody was looking for him; he didn’t have to come forward. If he had wanted to come forward with this as a friend, he would have done this, to my mind, from day one.”
Tzul’s murder took place on July sixth, Hendy had escaped from prison two days prior to that. Eleven weeks after the murder he was shot while police attempted to recapture him.
