Inmate found guilty of making a gun

Cecil Castillo

Twenty-seven year old Cecil Castillo, an inmate at the Belize Central Prison, was today found guilty of attempting to assemble a makeshift firearm behind prison walls.  On May twenty-ninth, while Castillo was on remand for murder, he was caught in possession of a homemade firearm.  The crudely constructed weapon, a weld of plastic, an aluminum sausage can, rubber, electrical tape and thread, was discovered inside the Tango Nine section of the prison, where Castillo and several other inmates were being housed.  According to the warden, who testified before Magistrate Adolph Lucas Jr., the gun was in Castillo’s hand while he was reclining on his bunk.  Under oath, Castillo told the court that he owned up to the weapon simply because he was being coerced by his cellmates.  At a quarter to five this evening Magistrate Lucas handed down the guilty verdict, after summing up evidence and testimony presented by five witnesses.  Castillo is on remand for the murder of twenty-two year old Jessie Jones, a resident of Ontario Village, who was fatally shot on September seventh, 2011.