20 year old John Faber sentenced to 5 years for ammo offences
Twenty-year-old John Faber, charged with kept firearm and ammunition without a gun license, was also sentenced to five years for each count today by Senior Magistrate Sharon Fraser after she found him guilty of both offences. The sentences are to run concurrently. The incident occurred on July sixteenth, 2011, on Faber’s Road. Two police officers testified that, based on information they received, they began to trail a gold Ford Ranger pick-up truck that Faber was driving. They said that when the vehicle stopped a man and a woman got out and then Faber alighted the vehicle. The officers ordered Faber to stop but he ran into a yard and behind a house. According to their report, when they searched behind the house they found a nine millimeter pistol with two rounds of ammunition in its magazine. Faber gave a statement admitting that he did not stop when the police ordered him to do so but said that it was because he had cannabis.
In light of how many people in Belize have walked free after committing actual murder, a 5-year sentence seems a little harsh for simply owning an unregistered gun.