Ervin Reneau charged for double murder

ervin reneau

Ervin Alexander Reneau, the son of an upstanding Belize City family, was arraigned today for the double homicide in Tuesday night’s mayhem at the Belize Diesel Service Center on the Northern Highway.  The forty year old appeared this afternoon before Chief Magistrate Margaret McKenzie.  He entered court under escort from CIB officers and was jovial, making jokes to his girlfriend during the proceedings. Reneau was slapped with nine counts: two charges for the murder of Edgar Ayala and David Longsworth, four charges for the attempted murder of Esram Barnett, William Henry, Ursula Longsworth, and Antonio Vellos Medina; one charge for Use of Deadly means of Harm upon Ursula Longsworth; one charge of Harm upon Ursula Longsworth; and keeping a Firearm without a gun license for a nine millimeter.  According to a police’s caution statement, on December first, Reneau showed them where he hid the gun in Roaring Creek Village.   When he was told his adjournment on the fourth of February, 2011, he asked the chief magistrate what day of the week that would fall on. The judge did not answer but the prosecutor did; it falls on a Friday. Ayala was the first victim in Tuesday night’s homicides.  The gunman killed him and took his gun and then pulled the trigger on Longsworth who was refueling a vehicle accompanied by his wife and child.  He died shortly afterwards at the K.H.M.H. The images of the senseless murders were caught on the surveillance cameras of the service station. According to Reneau’s record, from 1997 to 2004 he appeared seventeen times before the court for separate offences, including mild offences for traffic violations, obtaining property by deception in 1995, aggravated assault, bound over for twelve months in 1996.  He also served three years for firearm and six months for ammunition offences.