Accused robbers cleared of Cayo resort robbery
While the collapse of the Ben Bou-Nahra case has taken the headlines this week, today News Five’s Jacqueline Godwin has the details of another legal matter that police investigators appear to have bungled.
Jacqueline Godwin, Reporting
Today one of the three men arrested and charged in connection with the hold up and armed robbery at the Banana Bank Lodge in the Cayo District walked out of Magistrate Court a free man. Thirty-one year old Henry Gonzales, who had been accused of Abetment to Commit Robbery, appeared relieved as he left the courtroom of Chief Magistrate Margaret McKenzie. Gonzales was defended by attorneys Bernard and Sharon Pitts. According to the father and daughter legal team, their client should never have been arrested because there was no evidence to link him to the crime.
Bernard Pitts, Defence Attorney
“We got no disclosure at all, didn’t disclose what evidence they had and if they had any then it was within their bosom. And they took this long time, lentamente I say, to withdraw this case against the man. Anybody else they withdraw it quick, like yesterday.”
Jacqueline Godwin
“Well why did the police bring the charges against him in the first place?”
Bernard Pitts
“Well that’s the way they operate, you see. It seems to me often is the case and it is my observation that they charge then they look for evidence.”
In July 2006, Belmopan police arrested Gonzales and alleged that on February seventeenth, Gonzales was the person who drove a gang of armed men, including Marco Javier Chiquin Molina and Geronimo Cortes-Gonzales, to the Banana Bank Road to rob the resort.
Sharon Pitts, Defence Attorney
“This matter originated in Belmopan, in the Cayo judicial district and it was transferred to Belize judicial district. Mister Henry Gonzales, when he was first arraigned was not admitted to bail. We had to make application by way of a petition to Supreme Court for his admittance to bail, which was not even objected to by the council from the D.P.P.’s office. In the meantime, Mister Gonzales has come to court on each and every occasion in accordance with the terms of his bail.”
Today Gonzales, who lives in Belmopan, says he is happy that the nightmare is over because he is innocent and now is able to return home to his wife and three children.
Henry Gonzales, Acquitted of Charges
“I feel very good that now I am able to go back to my family, because I had nothing to do with those problems.” [Translated from Spanish]
During court this morning, prosecutors also withdrew the charges of Abetment to Commit Robbery against Marco Javier Chiquin Molina and Geronimo Cortes-Gonzales. According to the case’s Lead Prosecutor Linden Flowers, that move was a directive handed down by the Director of Public Prosecutions after the file was examined.
A.S.P. Linden Flowers, Lead Prosecutor
“The prosecution did not disclosed any evidence to the defence nor to the defendant because the case file having return from the D.P.P. came with a memo stating that the charges related to that incident be withdrawn from Mister Gonzales and the other two male persons that are now presently before court number one.”
According to Flowers, the D.P.P. made the decision because the witnesses in that incident were not able to identify the accused.
Julian Sherrard, Former Chairman, BTIA, Cayo District
“Well I’m not sure exactly what the police had found linking the gentleman who is acquitted today. But it’s sad because they were definitely a gang of at least eight members that we know of who were terrorizing the west and who really contributed to a lot of damage towards the tourism industry, loses of millions of dollars which affects our entire country.”
But while Henry Gonzales was allowed to go home, tonight Marcos Molina and Geronimo-Gonzales remain behind bars at Hattieville prison. Both men are faced with over forty counts of Robbery and Assault in connection with nine other incidents that occurred in the Chiquibul Reserve area where tourists and locals were held up and robbed as they toured various sites in the Cayo District.
A.S.P. Linden Flowers
“I do not expect them to walk out free. Mister Gonzales know the matter was withdrawn because of the witnesses, but the other cases we have several witnesses who have identify the two defendants and are ready and willing to come to court. We must say that witnesses is what make a case, whether it be civilian witnesses or victims who were robbed there, or police officers there. And as the prosecutor, I am here to put the persons, the witnesses before the court for them to testify.”
Following today’s summary trial, the matter will now proceed to trail at the Magistrate Court. Jacqueline Godwin for News Five.
