Pipersburgh and Robateau found guilty of 2 of 4 murders
It’s almost nine years since the June 2002 robbery at Bowen and Bowen Limited that escalated into a bloodbath when two security guards and two unsuspecting city residents were shot to death. Leslie Pipersburgh and Patrick Robateau, both former employees of the soft drink company, were first tried for the quadruple murder in 2004, found guilty but their appeal went all the way up to the Privy Council which ordered a new trial. On Thursday, after a month’s long retrial and statements from as many as twenty-one witnesses, Pipersburgh and Robateau heard their fate. During the sum up of the sensational case, the men were freed of two counts of Murder for the deaths of Cherry Tucker and David Flores, who were killed shortly after the robbers left the Bowen and Bowen compound. And just after five in the evening, a jury of twelve began deliberation on the murders of Fidel Mai and Kevin Alvarez, the security guards who were killed on the job. Within less than three hours, a unanimous decision was reached at three minutes after eight and the verdict is… guilty on both counts. Attorney Michael Peyrefitte, who represented Leslie Pipersburgh, spoke to the media after the jury decided.
Michael Peyrefitte
Michael Peyrefitte, Attorney for Leslie Pipersburgh
“The jury, they are in charge of the facts. They saw the case a certain way—whether I agree with them or not based on the facts—that’s the verdict of the jury. I believe that the evidence was not there against Leslie Pipersburgh but the jury has made the decision.”
Jules Vasquez, Channel 7
“So now, the sentence is foretold.”
Michael Peyrefitte
“Pretty much. There are only two sentences for a guilty verdict on murder; one is death and the other one is life imprisonment. The crown did not ask for the death sentence so more than likely it will be a life sentence for both convicted individuals.”
Anita Nembhard
“Mister Peyrefitte, do you believe that the fact that your client put himself at the robbery, which is one of the main ingredients of the murder in the end, do you think that that played a role to the jurors’ decision tonight?”
Michael Peyrefitte 
“I don’t know. It’s—we never know what makes the jury decide how they decide. We never know. But I told him what his options are and he decided that he would get on the dock and just tell the truth because by law, not because he committed the robbery mean that he had to have been involved in the murder. They were two separate incidents.”
Jules Vasquez
“You feel you have grounds for an appeal?”
Michael Peyrefitte
“Oh absolutely, we have grounds for an appeal but like I said, I don’t know if he wants to appeal and I’m not sure if I’m going to be doing the appeal. So that; I don’t know. Unless the Court of Appeal forces me to represent him at the appeal as it was a directive to represent him at the Supreme Court.”
hang them all
As we see here these killings began under Mr Musa administration(rod). PUP has used the crime figures to play the people of Belize against their rival political parties. Like rod would come on here and say resignnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn, even though we saw these crime whilst he was PM. While he plays people lose their lives. Until UDP and PUP politicians are directly affected, crime and the causes of crime will not be addressed. Addressing the social ills linked to our high crime rates over the past ten years you Jack @$$*$. You are both responsible for destroying our beautiful country with your corruption.
Imagine that only two items on the news of Belize were not crime related. Of course crime is high in Belize but haven’t we done anything else in the past week but rob, kill and raped?
How is our schools? Our kids ? Our churches? Our resorts? Our weather? Our tourism? I can’t help thinking there is a hidden agenda here. I know people like to hear bad news but some good news are pleasantly welcome. Our children are suffering with these doom and gloom, and if we are not careful we will see many more suicides. An action which was rarely present in our communities until now (esp among girls?). Come on people get a grip.
hang them hang them all hang them high .
Now you can go hang them an eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth they are worthless monsters why lock them up at the expense of the people, with that display in the supreme court my predictions is that they will kill again while in prison. Remember, My Legacy B 4 My People.
Since the prosecutor does not have the …… to seek the death penalty he /she needs to be replaced, it’s a tough job but if you are going to take it you will have to be able to make these tough decisions.
AMEN
I would have preferred guilty on all 4 but will settle for 2. I believe the Belizean taxpayers are paying for these appeals & instead of wasting another nine years & money feeding these animals & paying their attorney, it is time to give them some strong shoe laces so that they can carry out the sentence they deserve. I’ll believe they had no help & Estradaban’s findings.
This is why the injustice system fails the people of Belize. These two guys are GUILTY as charged because they bragged about this crime spree in prison. I know, I worked there for 4 years!!!
Mat God have mercy on Michael Peyrefitte, Dickie Bradley, Dean Barrow, B.Q. Pitts, Sampson and every single attorney who defend these cold blooded murderers and get them acquitted knowing in their hearts that SOME of them are guilty of heinous crimes against innocent people. I don’t know how they sleep at night but MAY GOD HAVE MERCY ON THEM WHEN IT’S THEIR TURN TO FACE JUDGEMENT!!!!!!!
everybody knows they did it, so why do we put up with this nonsense!
so they getting life? it a fair punishment for taking a life.
Money, Money, Money is the name of the game. The root of all evil. Money is their God, religion is gone from the Jewel. The devil is ruling the earth more and more, these days. But, God is not sleeping he will clean the earth again as he did so many times before.
Well that’s nice to hear from that idiot attorney Michael Peyrefitte who entertain the criminals to commit more crimes everyday. but i pray that one day a member of his might go in and he will feel the pains that the victims parents go through. i have one thing common to commence,start heng dem @$$hole who kill and the convicted one until john crow come for them.they don’t deserve to be feed everyday. let them punish in jail until they conscious that the almighty God Exist. mista Dean Barrow let the people of Belize be safe and not to go married in Florida again.all them idiotic attorneys stop support the criminals by freeing them.they deserve savage punishments.
Maybe I am not getting all of this but… well when you really think about it if they are not guilty of 4 cold blooded murders but guilty of 2 out of 4 doesn’t this mean that they are embolden to wonder… “Hey if I am able to get away from two maybe I am able to get away from 4”? Come on why don’t they just give them their guns, slap them on the hands, tell them not to do it again and set them free? We lose even if they are behind bars for the rest of their lives. They will have 3 meals a day, a roof over their heads, all the drugs that they want, clothes on their backs and all the … … they want and it’s all paid for by us, yes us. So pay your taxes, pay in to the 2 innocent people’s murder without justice and don’t tell me you don’t pay taxes, you may not pay income tax but you pay GST and everything else they force us to pay.
In a time like this with all the murders, all the rapes, all the robberies and when the people are in need of remembering what justice looks like. A time when we need our government to step up and step in to show us that they are serious about curbing crime. I say if the present government and the previous government have shown the people anything, they have shown us that they can do whatever they want no matter whom (with the exception of God) ,they will stay the course like G.W. Bush. So I say hang these human garbage high and we can even save some money and maybe save some lives because if they are alive there is still that remote chance that they can be free if not today maybe tomorrow to terrorize and kill again. The only people that will benefit from them are the owners of the prison. So listen up people we are paying for these boys vacation.
I really don’t like to mention God in the dealings of the un-righteous (because God doesn’t have any fault in the sins that man commit) but I would like to ask God what have we all done to deserve the (red and blue) noose that our “elected officials” are pulling ever tighter around our necks? Why isn’t it around the necks of these two fine citizens? Maybe it is because after all is said and done, they have only been committed of 2 out of 4 murders. You know something aside from the high price that I will pay to put gas in my tank to go out somewhere to spend time with my family and show them the beauty of our country, I am afraid to take them down the street for fear that I may come across people like these two fine upstanding men or people of their caliber because the justice system has failed so badly they set free a lot of these same guys and they are walking around just racking up murders of us the guilty. Guilty that is how the police look at us, we the people. We, who go to work every day, pay our taxes and raise our kids the right way. We raise our kids the right way in order for them to be contributors to our society thus they contribute to the growth of our country then along comes two human garbage, two fine gentle men whose best part from even before birth drained down their mothers crack and ended up a stain on the sheets, comes along and robs and kill your child that has more potential than they would ever have. Come on even a blind def mute can tell you that justice has officially left us at the mercy of the death dealers. I firmly believe in sacrificing one for the many, for if the truly guilty like this are sacrificed today perhaps four more may live on tomorrow. Hang them P.M for the people may be forced to do it themselves one day. Hang them and show us that you are doing the peoples work, the job that you are getting paid by public funds to do (you know the job that we elected you to do?) and above all show us that you are competent in being the leader of this great country.
The last comment is in no way politically bias. Divide and rule people divide and rule. You need to stop thinking how they want you to think. Not because your great-grandfather and grand-mother bought in to their bs means you should too. We are living in a more modern and intellectually advanced time, a time unlike theirs where they had to wait days to hear any sort of news from any part of this country. If you can’t think for yourself and rely who is in government at the time (which really doesn’t matter because they are one and the same) to think for you and you have any sort of accredited college degree, I would suggest that you go burn it!!! Burn it right now and know that you are less intelligent than the man with simple commonsense; because even he knows that when you are getting shot in the head after being robbed, the perpetrator doesn’t ask if you are UDP or PUP.
More students for the RE-EDUCATION CENTER…….. AKA …….THE PRISON FARM..
SEND THEM TO THE PRISON FARM FOR LIFE+4
There they CAN EARN THEIR KEEP and CONTRIBUTE TO SOCIETY at no cost to TAXPAYERS.
BUILD THE PRISON FARM IN TOLEDO……….Kolbe too close to Belize City.
APPEAL!!!! WE WANT GUILTY VERDICT FOR ALL FOUR MURDERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
RadicalBelizean, you are right on target when you talk about how these political parties have used the criminal elements to play the people of Belize against their rival political partiy, does not seems like many people have figured this out but it is exactly what is going on in Belize and the reason why the crime cannot be controlled it is encouraged by these political parties in their struggle to stay in power. Remember, My Legacy B 4 My People.
SHAME ON MICHEAL PEYREFITTE ANOTHER DICKIE THE DOG BRADLEY.
I SAY HANG DEW BWAY CAUSE ONCE SET FREE THEY EITHER KILL OR BE KILLED
UDP AND DOUG SINGH have no respect for police officers, after one was shot at the Belama Station it is still not fully operational..with lights, proper roof, security cameras ..50million of our taxpayers dollars for BTL and they can’t fix a roof for a Police Station..Imagine the Possibilities!!!!!
do not vote for either party vote for small people they dont owe no one please none of themdeserve our vote they should manage our money but when we put in they do what they want no free pass belizean lets vote them out
Belize is a country that functions by the rule of law. We all would like to rid our community of these types of individuals but there is a process and patience is needed else we would be guilty of crimes that equal those for which they are charged.
Most people commit crimes because they think they can get away with it! Law enforcement when done correctly can deter crime. Enforcement is the problem in Belize because enough due dilligence is not done by the police. Those of you who are swift to judgement and wants blood let me remind you that there is much bad in all of us and if not for the grace of God and law enforcement more of us would degenerate to that sme level. Let the law take its course and pray God the police force steps up its game very soon!
I completely agree with CEO