Convicted murderer sentenced to life behind bars

A young man who was convicted of Murder earlier this month has been sentenced to life imprisonment. Twenty-one year old Dionicio Salazar was found guilty of the June twenty-eighth, 2004 killing of Randy August. August was sitting on the banks of the Macal River in San Ignacio with his friend, Janelle Longsworth, when he was chopped in the centre of his back with a machete. During the trial on December first, Longsworth testified that she saw Salazar approach them from behind and then attack August. The verdict followed three mitigating testimonies including a former school teacher’s claim that Salazar was always a well behaved and mannerly boy. It was also made known to the court that Salazar had no previous convictions. Justice Adolph Lucas justified his failure to impose the death penalty by explaining that this particular crime did not reach the level of extreme brutality to trigger an execution. Motive for the killing was an ongoing dispute between youths from San Ignacio and Santa Elena.