Belizean-American implicated in million dollar con

Many Belizean men have been accused of having “sweet mouth” but the story coming out of Florida tonight is that a Belizean-American helped con a U.S. doctor out of more than a million dollars. According to press reports, in January 2005 chiropractor Dr. Rhonda Schroeder was introduced to a man she was made to believe was all star Major League Baseball pitcher Pedro Martinez. But the guy she actually met was Kenneth Day, a former resident of Belize City who migrated to the United States more than thirty years ago. We don’t think Day bears much resemblance to Martinez, but Schroeder fell for the “whap” … hook, line and sinker. Day’s accomplice, and the mastermind behind the con, was his ex-girlfriend and mother of his child, Shirley Gordon. Gordon told Schroeder that “Martinez” was her brother.

Over the next six months, Gordon roped in members of her family to convince the gullible doctor that Martinez planned to marry her. Schroeder was so blinded by her love for the man she had met only once in person, that she spent lavishly on her new found family, going so far as to start calling Gordon “sister” and buying her a house and furniture, leasing a Cadillac Escalade for her to drive, and even paying for Gordon’s cosmetic surgery.

But the caper came to a crushing end when Schroeder finally connected the dots. She rushed to the police but prosecutors did not initially charge Gordon, Day, and the other accomplices because Schroeder had actually perjured herself in testimony at a criminal trial against Gordon for a similar con involving another victim.

Gordon, a career whappist with a forty year criminal record, was eventually charged with racketeering for the Pedro Martinez fraud, but in June of this year, her previous exploits earned her a long-term stay in the Florida State prison where she will reside until she’s eighty years old. As for Day, his “baseball career” cut short, he continues to work as an electrician in Florida.