Five men freed of murder charge after a year without evidence

Five men charged with a sensational murder at La Isla Bonita are free tonight after the charges against them were withdrawn earlier today in the San Pedro. The men were charged in connection with the shooting murder of twenty-eight year old John Paul Saldivar, a tour guide who worked at Patajos in San Pedro Town in January of 2009. But after a year behind bars, when the five accused went to court, there was still no evidence against them presented by the office the Director of Public Prosecutions. Instead, a directive was sent to withdraw charged. Our court reporter, Anita Nembhard, spoke with Karim Musa who defended four of the five men and who says that a constitutional case could follow since the men were being held for too long without evidence.

Karim Musa, Defense Attorney
“Myself along with Senior Counsel, Ellis Arnold, represented Charles Woodye, Micah Thompson, Shelton August and Kyle Patnett. Michael Peyrefitte represented the fifth co-accused, Mr. Eric Swan. What transpired this morning, the prosecutor, Mr. John Sanchez, presented a directive from the DPP informing the court that the DPP had made a decision to withdraw all charges against all five accused men.”

Anita Nembhard, Freelance Court Reporter
“What does this mean for the five accused men or the four that you represented? Does it mean since it was withdrawal that this murder charge can be brought back against these men?”

Karim Musa
“Well of course but the DPP and the police would need to have some evidence and throughout this case—this case has been going on for the past year and it’s been adjourned I’d say about ten times and on each occasion the prosecution failed to present a single piece of evidence any of the accused so I don’t see how they could try to re-arrest these men again. I have already advised them that they ought to take a constitutional case against the Police Department and by extension the Government of Belize for wrongfully detaining them and in my opinion for maliciously prosecuting them over this year particularly because there is no evidence and they knew all along that there was no evidence against these men so they ought not to have held them for an entire year and in my opinion this amounts to nothing short of preventative detention.”