Accused killer granted appeal for separate charge

In news from the Court of Appeal, an accused killer awaiting retrial for Murder has been granted a new trial for a separate charge because of a technicality. In mid April, a jury was unable to reach consensus for verdicts against twenty-two year old Rene Morente and co-defendant Carlos Granillo. Both Morente and Granillo had been charged with the July 2004 murder of Santa Martha farmer Mary Jane Blondell. But stemming from that same incident, the jury was able to convict Morente of Aggravated Burglary and Granillo of Burglary. Morente appealed his conviction and today the Court of Appeal ruled that because Murder cases are heard by twelve jurors and Aggravated Burglary cases should be heard by nine people it was unfair to the defendant to have the charges tried simultaneously. Because of the outcome, it is expected that Granillo will also be filing an appeal on the same grounds. The body of seventy-three year old Mary Jane Blondell was found partially buried in a shallow grave off the Hummingbird Highway near mile twenty-five. Blondell, a naturalized Belizean from the United States, had been living in the country for thirty-four years and for more than two decades had lived on her farm situated about six miles off the Hummingbird Highway in St. Margaret’s Village.