Accused murderer freed
Forty-four year old Guatemalan national Edilio Rios, accused of the 2008 chopping death of Pedro Arturo Romero, is free of murder charges after spending almost five years in remand. Rios, represented by attorney Ernest Staine, appeared before Justice Denis Hanomansingh in the Belmopan Supreme Court on Wednesday where he was found not guilty by a twelve-member jury. After three hours of deliberation the panel returned a unanimous verdict. Rios was accused of fatally hacking Romero with a machete in Valley of Peace following a confrontation during which his life was reportedly threatened. In court, the prosecutor Cecil Ramirez called several witnesses to the stand despite his initial piece of evidence being ruled inadmissible since a confession, in the form of a written and oral statement, was not obtained voluntarily.
Just graduated with a BZ diploma, to go and kill more !!!
It’s almost hopeless trying to take killers to trial when written confessions get thrown out because of technicalities. I’ve said it before, ComPol Whylie should provide inexpensive audio recorders for every officer, so that there would be no doubt what a person said, or how he said it.
It’s time just to kill them in the streets and be done with it, instead of waiting five years to put them out to murder again. I hope killer Rios’s neighbors organize to keep a very close eye on him, and hopefully drive him back to Guatemala.
Wow only 4 years for murder what a deal the corruption in this gov. Is so rampant that a life is only worth 4 years what a disgrace.
The police so incompetent we dont know if this man killed in self defense or out right badness. The system needs to invest in proper training for them dumb police officers in how to investigate and interrogate and get proper statements maybe even have the interrogation video recorded to prevent police abuse. DPP and compol need to work together please.
Police in Belize need to differentiate their writing between English and Kriol. Yes, it will be quite confusing when you speak Kriol and try to write, listen, understand, and then translate and then write the confession in English. It is called language confusion.
Look, you get turnip juice from turnips. You hire dumb people to staff the police force you get dumb crop happening. By the time these people are hired as police officers, they have already passed the place of learning common sense. They are now the product of the environment they came from, and the training must not be worth much, we see the result everyday.
Detectives really need to be taught investigative techniques, and stop letting witnesses and suspects just talk and talk. Just read or listen to witnesses account on the news, you just cannot make sense out of what they are saying. Detectives need to learn to take charge and ask the questions over and over until there is a coherent answer, not a scrambled mess of creole.
I am not sure the Belizean officials care about what people thinks; I am sure if you were to tell the judge his or her ruling doesn’t make sense the reply would be, “And SO”; I think the PM could do something to change the way the legal system works but it would have to happen when the Belizean people get enough of how the country is govern otherwise, objections is futile.
With all those murders that are put back in population, Belize crime rate will never go down maybe when people close to the county’s official starts getting murder then something might happen to improve the criminal system.
it’s not just that the police are dumb, i’m sorry but they strait up don’t care and are mostly corrupt ………. anyways.
Storm and Al both have good points.
Until our police are competent to conduct professional, coherent interrogations that are recorded digitally or on tape, murderers and other criminals will be set free 97% of the time they are brought to trial — that’s disgraceful, and A THREAT TO OUR NATIONAL SECURITY.
Speaking of which, where is our Minister of National Security? It seems our entire security apparatus is without a leader. Until it has a competent one, I’m for vigilante justice. It’s the only reasonable way to protect our families today.