Caye Caulker resident gets five years for stabbing teen

Eber Guerra

A farmer who stabbed a fourteen year old girl from Caye Caulker multiple times in 2004, today pleaded guilty to use of deadly means of harm with intent to cause unlawful wound. In April 2004 at the age of eighteen, Eber Guerra, a father of a three year-old girl, was accused of trying to kill the fourteen year-old student. The teenager survived the ordeal and today, Guerra pleaded guilty to the alternative charge of use of deadly means of harm with the intent to cause unlawful wounds to the minor. In trial, he showed remorse for his action and said he was sorry. Guerra begged for leniency and his attorney, Nigel Ebanks also asked the court to impose a non custodial sentence.  The young girl reported to police that she was inside her bedroom sleeping, when she heard someone knock on her door.  She got up and opened it and that’s when a man put his hand over her eyes, placed a knife in her back and ordered her to go with him. She said that she did and that’s when he took her behind the Caye Caulker Bakery and stabbed her several times to the chest and body.  The man then left her to die after riding off on a bicycle. Two character witnesses were called who gave a good account of Guerra; his grandmother, Florencia Bustios and his uncle, Aniceto Patt.  Bustios said he was a hard working grandson who had changed his life and Patt said that since the incident, his nephew came to work with him so he could stay out of trouble. But Justice Michelle Arana recognized the gravity of the crime and imposed a five year sentence.