Court dismisses appeal of Mark Cardinez

The Belize Court of Appeal will be hearing a number of cases in its current session which began yesterday. Today the Court dismissed an appeal by thirty-five year old Mark Cardinez, who has been convicted of rape and sentenced to eighteen years behind bars. Cardinez, who appeared unrepresented, appealed his sentencing on several grounds: that the complainant had lied against him, that there was no physical evidence presented, and further that the complainant was a friend of one of the jurors. Cardinez also argued that he had been sentenced to eighteen years because he was HIV positive but he failed to convince the Appeals Court. On March eleventh 2008, Cardinez was convicted of the rape of an eighteen year old woman who was staying at his house two years earlier on June twenty-third of 2006. Cardinez raped the woman in the bathroom.