Family of three aquitted of gun and ammunition charges

MARIO Canton

jason canto

Parents Lovina and Mario Canto and their twenty-six year old son Jason walked out of Magistrate Edd Usher’s courtroom today free of criminal charges.  A search conducted at their Warrie Street address in Belize City on April 1st last year led to the discovery of a point thirty-eight pistol, a nine millimeter pistol, a twelve gauge shotgun and one hundred and twelve live rounds of point thirty-eight ammunition.  The trio was initially charged with keeping a greater amount of ammunition than what is prescribed in a gun license.  Director of Public Prosecutions Cheryl Lynn Vidal later intervened to withdraw the charge against Lovina.  Both husband and son instead faced jail time because the amendment to the firearms act does not allow the court to offer bail for the offence.  Following the confiscation of the weapons it was revealed that there were discrepancies over the legitimacy of the licenses.  There were also concerns of tampering because the serial numbers on the guns did not correspond with the license presented by Mario.  The document he presented indicated that the license was for two weapons, a shotgun and a nine millimeter pistol. The shotgun’s serial numbers matched those on the license while the nine millimeter’s serial numbers were not identical to those on the license.  During the trial today Usher also noted that after reviewing the evidence of the case against Jason he could not see how Mario could be found guilty of the charge when no license document was ever presented in the court during the trial by the arresting officer.   With that he also acquitted Jason of the charge.