Police seize Bennett SUV but witnesses stay silent

As police continue to investigate the premeditated killings of the Brannon brothers, tonight a new development has been added to the case file. But authorities admit that while the mountain of circumstantial evidence is growing, witnesses who could make or break the case are choosing to remain silent.

Jacqueline Godwin, Reporting
Police strongly suspect that this 2001 Montero Mitsubishi was one of the vehicles used in the shooting deaths of Kevin and Philip Brannon on May fourteenth. Investigations show that the vehicle was once owned by one of the accused, Taedron Bennett but two days after the killings, Bennett sold the SUV to a Belize City businessman for thirty thousand dollars. According to the officer in charge of the Crimes investigation Branch, Chester Williams, when Bennett was brought in by his attorney on May eighteenth, he was questioned about the whereabouts of his vehicle. Bennett chose to remain silent.

A.S.P. Chester Williams, Head, C.I.B.
?Prior to him being brought into the station we had made checks to the transport department and had found that he was indeed the owner of a Mitsubishi Montero, blue in colour, four door. So when he came and was questioned he choose to remain mute. So we went back to the transport department where we established that he has sold the vehicle two days after the Brannon shootings.?

Jacqueline Godwin
?How disturbing is this to you guys because it looks like whatever possible evidence there could be have either been have stolen or apparently in this case sold??

Chester Williams
?Well it is very disturbing as you have mentioned but we are the police and we are here to investigate. They have the best attorneys, and I?m certain that the attorneys are guiding as they go along telling them what to do and what not to do. And that itself makes our job more difficult but we will continue to investigate this case. We are certain that in order for us to able to get a conviction we will need to have as much evidence as possible. In investigating any case you can never have too much evidence, and that is the reason why we trying to get all we can, so that when we go to court we can have sufficient evidence where we can get a conviction.?

Jacqueline Godwin
?Do the police only suspect this vehicle may have been involved or have you guys received the necessary information to say that for sure that this was the vehicle involved??

Chester Williams
?We are certain that this vehicle was involved, and we are also certain that another vehicle was involved. They were two vehicles used as we have mentioned earlier. And we are still in search of the other vehicle. We have not been lucky enough to come up with the other vehicle, but we are still appealing to people. If anyone know the whereabout of the other vehicle give us a call and we will follow up on whatever information we get. The investigation is far from done; we have lot more to do. We still have two persons in the hospital. We?re still waiting for their recovery and still waiting to get their side to the story too. Because I?m certain what they can tell us can be great help to this investigation. The three main firearms we wanted to have sealed this investigation, we were very fruitless in having them. And I am almost certain that these guys have disposed of these firearms. The firearm belonging to Joseph Kee, Taedron Bennett and Ricky Aguilar. All three of them reported their firearm stolen. I don?t know if they believe that they are dealing with idiots but I must tell them that we are no idiots. The fact that they disposed the firearms shows guilt on their part. They do have something to hide and that will be left for a jury to decide.?

Since the arrest of Bennett, police have also questioned the girlfriends of the other two accused in the gruesome murders, Joseph Kee and Ricardo Aguilar. The police have hit a stumbling block there because eyewitnesses are refusing to sign sworn statements to the events leading up the shooting.

Chester Williams
?They were released because we did not have any evidence to have been able to prosecute them. While they have been released they have not been totally exonerated from the investigation. The investigation, as I mentioned, is still ongoing and as we go along anyone we found to be involved in this crime in any way, shape or form will be prosecuted as the others.?

Jacqueline Godwin
?Mister Williams with respect to the two women you guy had detained. They were earlier reports that they were seen been taking out of the vehicle just before the shooting were you guys able to establish whether or not this was the case??

Chester Williams
?I would say that we have credible information to say yes that did occur but we cannot go to court with ?hear seh evidence.? The people that gave us that information refuse to give us in statement and that?s the reason we were unable to prosecute them.?

Jacqueline Godwin
?How forthcoming have people been in assisting the police with this investigation??

Chester Williams
?I must say that we can not really complain. We have been getting help from the community. We get calls giving us tips and whenever we get them we follow up on them. So the information coming into the police is very good.?

Investigators remain confident that by the time the case does go to trial, they will have the necessary evidence to convict all three young men of murder.

Chester Williams
?That is what we are here to do, our job. To investigate and to investigate to the best of our ability and knowledge and we have a capable staff, good investigators and I?m certain that we will overcome whatever obstacle that comes in our way.?

Williams says with the help of business houses like Courts Belize and Western Union, the Crimes Investigation Branch continues to strengthen its capabilities to expedite case files to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.

Chester Williams
?This computer will be used to expedite the duplication of case files at the Crimes Investigation Branch in order to have case files been forwarded to the D.P.P. office for advice in a more earlier stage. Also to expedite hearing of the Supreme Court, so this computer given to the branch is of great help to us. We appreciate it and I would like through this means give thanks to the Western Union for this donation.?

Tonight News Five understands that two nine millimetre handguns, one owned by Brian Kee and another belonging to his father, George Kee, have been sent abroad for ballistics testing. Both men are family members of one of the accused, Joseph Kee.