Convicted rapists plead to Court of Appeal

Levi Jackson

The Court of Appeal opened on Monday and most of the cases dealt with so far are for rape convictions.  Judges of the Court are President Elliot Mottley, and Justices Manuel Sosa, and Dennis Barrow. Levi Jackson’s appeal as the first heard. Jackson was convicted on May eight, 2009 for the rape of an employee of Old Belize.  Jackson met the woman waiting for a ride on the Western Highway in front of Old Belize and offered to take her home but instead he drove off the main highway and raped the woman after badly beating her. In his defense he claimed she willingly had sex with him. A jury of nine did not buy his story and Jackson was convicted of rape and sentenced to twelve years. On appeal, Jackson was unrepresented and appeared confused. He first said he was innocent and in the other breath he said he should be punished for the crime he committed. The judges told Jackson that he needed to decide whether he wanted an attorney to represent him, but Jackson indicated that no attorney would take up such an embarrassing case. The appeal judges gave him until Wednesday to prepare arguments as to why his jail term should be reduced.

The second was the appeal of two city men who were convicted in June 2009 of rape. Roman Petzold and Francis Lopez, were found guilty of raping a seventeen year old student of a North side high school. Their attorney, Hubert Elrington, argued that the rights of his two client’s rights for a fair trial were violated because the jurors were not kept in isolation and that the foreman of the jury was seen communicating with the father of the victim. But when Elrington was asked by the judges if he had the facts to support his submission, Elrington said that there is an affidavit but  had not yet obtained a statement from the witness. He was then granted time to prepare that statement as evidence and the case was adjourned for Wednesday.

Roman Petzold

Francis Lopez

Today two appeals were heard. The appeal of a father, whose name will not be used to protect his daughter, was dismissed so he will have to serve nineteen years behind bars for incest, unnatural crime and threat to death.   The second case was that of convicted rapist, Lewis Leiva, who is also well known as “DJ Whiz”.  He was also convicted in late 2009 for raping an American tourist, a guest at a resort in the Bella Vista area on the Northern highway.  His attorney, Simeon Sampson argued that the trial judge erred in law when he misdirected the jury by suggesting to them in his sum up that if they find that the woman was intoxicated by any degree by law, she could not give consent to sex. Sampson asked his sentence be quashed.  There are twelve other criminal cases to be heard in the session of Court.